Negationism
- Racial characteristics
Negationism is a punishable offence in Belgium. This means that it is illegal to publicly deny the Holocaust or any other recognised genocide. Unia is authorised to take legal action in cases of negationism and can therefore initiate legal proceedings against individuals or organisations on these grounds.
Definition of negationism
- The Van Dale dictionary defines negationism as the 'denial of (historical) events that are generally accepted to be happening or to have happened, in particular, the denial of the Holocaust'.
- The Negationism Law refers to “denying, [minimising], justifying or approving the genocide committed by the German National Socialist regime during World War II”.
- The 2019 amendment to the Anti-Racism Law broadens the definition: under certain conditions, it is also punishable to deny other genocides that have been established as such by a final decision of an international court (for example, the Rwandan genocide).
Examples of negationism
The following examples of negationism are taken from existing case law.
Warning: the examples contain offensive content.
- A website that contains the following text: “Hitler is the single person in world history who has done the most for the white race, and in fact for all of humanity, thanks to his decisive action against the Jews”.
- Making the Hitler salute at the funeral of someone who was known in far-right circles.
- A video recording of a man making the following statement in a company canteen: “Hitler didn’t go far enough and the gassing of Jews is just a detail in history”.
- Distributing pamphlets that, among other things, question the existence of the gas chambers.
Negationism in law
Negationism Law
In 1995 the Negationism Law came into force. The law criminalises the public denial, gross minimisation, attempts to justify or approval of the genocide committed by the German National Socialist regime during World War II. The Negationism Law had 2 objectives:
- to combat expressions of opinion that foster anti-Semitism and Racism and pose a threat to democratic society because their aim is the rehabilitation of Nazi ideology
- to protect against expressions of opinion that are defamatory and insulting to the memory of the victims of the genocide and their relatives, and especially to the Jewish people as a whole
In the new Criminal Code that will come into force in 2026, this will be stated under Article 256.
Anti-Racism Law
In 2019, Article 20, 5 was added to the Anti-Racism Law. As a result, it is also punishable under certain conditions to publicly deny, grossly minimise, attempt to justify or approve of other genocides. This only applies to genocides that have been officially established as such by a final decision of an international court. The genocide in Rwanda falls under this status, but the Armenian genocide does not.
The new Criminal Code includes this in Article 250, first paragraph, 5°.
4 punishable forms of negationism
In its judgment of 12 July 1996 (no. 45/96), the Court of Arbitration describes the 4 punishable forms of negationism as follows:
- Denial means denying the existence of the genocide in its entirety.
- Grossly minimising means downplaying the genocide in a very far-reaching and therefore severe, gross and insulting manner.
- Attempting to justify means striving, by rewriting historical data, to present the genocide in an acceptable way and thus legitimising Nazi ideology.
- Approval means expressing approval of the genocide and thus endorsing Nazi ideology.
Negationist press offence
A negationist press offence is a printed or online text denying a recognised genocide.
Which court has jurisdiction over negationist press offences?
Negationist press offences must be brought before a criminal court because they involve racism and xenophobia.
Negationism: analysis of case law
Which court cases dealt with negationism in the past and what can we conclude from the judgments and rulings? In March 2024 we conducted an analysis of the case law involving the following elements:
- Denial, gross minimisation, attempted justification or approval
- Disclosure requirement
- Making the Hitler salute as a form of negationism
- Displaying Nazi symbols as a form of negationism
- Negationist statements in public spaces
- Negationist statements on social media
- Distribution of negationist publications
- Punishment of negationism and alternative measures
Related content
Anti-Semitism in Belgium
Anti-Semitism is a form of discrimination or hatred towards people because of their Jewish origin.
What is hate speech?
Hate speech consists of statements that attack or insult a person or group. Such statements are punishable by law if they exceed the legal limits of freedom of speech.
- Racial characteristics