Belgian Holocaust denial law
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Belgian Negationism law (or Belgian Revisionism law), passed on 23 March 1995, bans public denial of Nazi genocide war crimes like the Holocaust. Specifically, this law against negationism makes it illegal to publicly "deny, play down, justify or approve of the genocide committed by the German National Socialist regime during the Second World War". Prosecution is led by the Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities. The offense is punishable by imprisonment of up to one year and fines of up to 2,500 EUR.
Legislative history
The negationism bill, drafted by Claude Eerdekens and Yvan Mayeur of the Parti Socialiste, was introduced in the Chamber of Representatives by Eerdekens (PS), Marcel Cheron (Ecolo), Marcel Colla (SP), Yvan Mayeur (PS), Luc Dhoore (CVP), Raymond Langendries (CDH), Louis Michel (MR) and Mieke Vogels (Agalev) on 30 June 1992.
The bill passed the Chamber of Representatives on 2 February 1995, with 194 votes in favour, 0 against and 0 abstentions.
The bill passed the Senate on 14 March 1995, with 131 votes in favour, 0 against and 1 abstention of Senator Herman Suykerbuyk (CVP), author of a 1996 Flemish decree placing on the same level victims of the Nazi occupation and "victims" of the post World War II repression.
The Flemish ultranationalist political party Vlaams Blok, the predecessor of Vlaams Belang, voted for the law, "out of a desire for respectability and to break out of its political isolation", even though its leadership "contained Holocaust deniers".
King Albert II signed and promulgated the bill on 23 March 1995. The Act was published in the Belgian Official Journal on 30 March 1995 and entered into force on the same day.
Freedom of expression
In the past, adversaries of the law have argued that this law restricts the freedom of expression, which is a basic human right.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Belgian Holocaust denial law” is open-knowledge reference entry. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Belgian, Holocaust and denial, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “open-knowledge reference entry” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4882468. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1995, 1992 and 1996.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Belgian Holocaust denial law”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Belgian Holocaust denial law primary sources, Belgian Holocaust denial law archive and Belgian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Belgian Holocaust denial law”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Belgian Holocaust denial law” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.