"Genocide Denial" Laws as Secular Heresy
A Critical Analysis with Reference to Bosnia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4868678 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert M Hayden (0000-0002-4379-3325, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 384-407 |
| Publication date | 2008-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Slavic Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-6779 • E-ISSN: 2325-7784 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0037677900023585 |
| OpenAlex | W2494210576 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 12 |
Heresy" is developed here as an analytical term for the criminalization of speech questioning the basic tenets of a belief system, such as internal criticisms of state socialism or denial of the applicability of the termgenocideto some mass crimes in a European Union that purports to make central the protection of human rights. European legislation to criminalize "genocide denial" is critiqued through a close analysis of international legal decisions dealing with whether "genocide" took place in the Bosnian war of 1992-95. Although granting both the facts as these courts found them and the serious criminality of the actions involved, Robert M. Hayden argues that calling them "genocide" broadens the definition of that term to the extent of losing the possibility of uniform application. Criminalizing "genocide denial" is thus not only contrary to principles of free speech and intellectual inquiry but manifests the same problem that Amnesty International identified in its reports in the 1980s on the vagueness of the "verbal crimes" provisions of the criminal laws of the formerly socialist countries. Hayden concludes that the punishment of heresy is a manifestation of power by a political elite that holds its values and assumptions to be immune from challenge
Amnesty · Criminal law · Criminalization · Criminology · Genocide · Heresy · Human rights · Incitement · Political science · Sociology · Cambodian History and Society · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Turkey's Politics and Society
The political lives of dead bodies
Collective Guilt
The “Odious Scourge”
Accounting for Genocide
An Introduction to Legal Reasoning
National Mythologies and Ethnic Cleansing
The partition of India and retributive genocide in the Punjab, 1946-47
Why the "Haves" Come Out Ahead
Blasphemy
Dismembering Yugoslavia
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Highly cited | No |