ABSTRACT
International law has struggled with the matter of genocide denial. In January 2007, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution urging UN members 'unreservedly' to reject 'denial of the Holocaust as a historical event', but stopped short of calling for criminalisation. This chapter examines two particular aspects of the way in which denialism has been addressed by international law: its treatment as an independent crime, and its potential significance as a form of hate speech, in particular within the system of international criminal law. In the case of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there certainly had been attempts to initiate the criminal prosecution of the Iranian president, focusing, however, on incitement rather than on denialism. Among laws that focus on denialist statements relating to the Holocaust, certain common themes are identifiable. In the words of a speaker of Yad Vashem, the conference represented 'an effort to mainstream Holocaust denial'.
