Parliamentary Assembly: Resolution to Combat Nazi Ideology

IRIS 2006-5:1/3

Tarlach McGonagle

Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

On 12 April 2006, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Resolution 1495 (2006) entitled “Combating the resurrection of Nazi ideology”.

One of its central premises is that contemporary Europe “has been conceived as a total rejection of the Nazi ideas and principles, with the aim to exclude that such horrendous crimes as those committed by the Nazi regime in the name of ‘racial superiority’ may ever be repeated”. It considers that the Council of Europe, “as the oldest European political organisation aimed at protecting and furthering democracy, human rights and the rule of law, has a special responsibility in preventing the resurgence of the Nazi ideology”.

The Resolution states that the PACE is “extremely worried over some developments which indicate that the public awareness of the danger of the Nnazi ideology and its rejection by society are weakening”. It is concerned in particular by the desecration of memorials and graves of “soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition”; “attempts to rehabilitate, justify and even glorify those who participated in the war on the Nazi side […]”; the use of Nazi symbols, and the denial or minimisation of the significance of crimes committed by the Nazi regime, in particular the Holocaust.

The PACE is also concerned by “political and social phenomena which, while making no direct reference to the Nazi regime, should be seen in the light of its ideology”. These include: “the growing number of manifestations of racial, ethnic and religious intolerance in daily life, including, inter alia, desecration of Jewish cemeteries and attacks on religious sites”; “attempts to create, through the media, a negative perception of some ethnic or religious groups”, and “growing support for political parties and movements with a xenophobic agenda”.

The PACE calls for the increased coordination of efforts to combat the revitalisation of Nazi ideology, “xenophobia, intolerance and hatred based on racial and ethnic grounds, political and religious extremism and all forms of totalitarian action”. It envisages a leading role for the Council of Europe in this respect. It welcomes relevant ongoing activities by various limbs of the Council of Europe, in particular by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), but urges that the development of such activities should be rendered more inclusive of a wider range of societal actors.