Review article
New Standards in Cases of Severe Hate Speech Forms: Denial of Genocide at the European Court of Human Rights
Barbara Herceg Pakšić
orcid.org/0000-0002-7052-928X
; Faculty of Law, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
The suppression of various hate speech manifestations is inseparable from the influence of national heritage and the obligations undertaken at the European level. In this context, given the very meagre national jurisprudence but also a lack of precise determinations regarding the subject area, the legal standards of the European Court of Human Rights are crucial when it comes to reasoning on hate speech cases in order to create guidelines for national systems. The first judgement for the Armenian genocide denial is the principal motive for this paper. Its powerful echo and polemics at the international level were stimulative for subject matter research. The purpose of the article is to examine the cases of genocide denial at the ECtHR in order to assess whether they all have the same fate, bearing in mind that this is a serious hate speech form that is not (or should not be) protected through guaranteed freedom of expression. Therefore, we raise some specific questions, analyse judgments, consider the relevant provisions and specific legal mechanisms in order to come to conclusions significant for the national system as well as point out the trends that this Court has set regarding the issue concerned.
Keywords
hate speech; genocide; denial; human rights; the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
Hrčak ID:
181636
URI
Publication date:
4.5.2017.
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