Campaign Website: MerciFrance.org

In face of staunch opposition by a number of genocide deniers and revisionists, the French National Assembly and Senate took a bold step by passing a law aimed at penalizing the denial of ALL GENOCIDES officially recognized by the French Government. The measure was proposed by member of French National Assembly Ms. Valérie Boyer.

The proposed law which passed in the French National Assembly and Senate is as following:

Article 1er

Le paragraphe 1er du chapitre IV de la loi du 29 juillet 1881 sur la liberté de la presse est complété par un article 24 ter ainsi rédigé : 

« Art. 24 ter. - Les peines prévues à l'article 24 bis sont applicables à ceux qui ont contesté ou minimisé de façon outrancière, par un des moyens énoncés à l'article 23, l'existence d'un ou plusieurs crimes de génocide défini à l'article 211-1 du code pénal et reconnus comme tels par la loi française. 

« Le tribunal peut en outre ordonner l'affichage ou la diffusion de la décision prononcée, dans les conditions prévues à l'article 131-35 du code pénal. »

Article 2

L'article 48-2 de la même loi est ainsi modifié : 

1° Après le mot : « déportés », sont insérés les mots : « , ou de toute autre victime de crimes de génocide, de crimes de guerre, de crimes contre l'humanité ou de crimes ou délits de collaboration avec l'ennemi » ; 

2° À la fin, les mots : « l'infraction prévue par l'article 24 bis » sont remplacés par les mots : « les infractions prévues aux articles 24 biset 24 ter ». 

Délibéré en séance publique, à Paris, le 22 décembre 2011. 

Le Président, 
Signé : BERNARD ACCOYER

In it's second phase, the French Senate took up this legislation and passed it on January 23, 2012.

This legislation is yet another step towards recognition and restoration of historical justice for the most heinous crime against the mankind, the crime of Genocide [the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group].

The proposed legislation is to ensure that racism and xenophobia are punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions within France. It also aims to encourage and improve judicial cooperation in such a sphere.

This measure, while penalizing the denial of ALL RECOGNIZED GENOCIDES, by definition also includes the sanctioning of the denial of the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian Genocide is one of the most studied and well documented man’s inhumanities to man in the course of history. From the confessions of Genocide organizers to documentation and position papers by renowned Genocide scholars and institutes, the Armenian Genocide has become a recognized historical fact. The French government has also recognized the Armenian Genocide.

A virtually identical law criminalizing the denial of the Jewish Holocaust is currently in effect in France and many other European nations. Such a law effectively prevents the perpetual suffering by the Jewish Holocaust victims and their descendants by erecting a legal wall against the trivializing the crime of genocide.

The pending bill would extend this important right to ALL RECOGNIZED GENOCIDES.

By supporting this petition, you will lend your support to penalization of negationist revisionism of not only the Armenian Genocide, but ALL GENOCIDES recognized by the French Government. You will send your gratitude to the people of France and the lawmakers in the French National Assembly and Senate who stood for their principles and voted for the penalization of the denial of the Armenian Genocide. Additionally, by signing this petition, you will thank the French President Nikolas Sarkozy for his leadership and support in this matter. Your support will also send a clear message that any future crimes of genocide and its denial will not go unpunished. Your support can and will make a real difference.