Finding a good balance between the necessity to fight against“ revisionists” trends or political oblivions, on the one hand, while respecting the freedom of speech and the freedom of research, in the other hand, is probably one of the most important challenges for a near future.
At the same time, there has been a growing trend to promote normative views of the past, even in countries where freedom of speech remains a strong tradition. In France, the lois mémorielles— laws that defend an official interpretation of a given historical episode( i. e. The Algerian War) or an official framework of criminal law( i. e. Western slavery as a crime against humanity), instigated tremendous polemics and intense activity amongst scholars and politicians. One can see a similar development at the European level: recently, the European Commission recommended that the EU members promulgate laws repressing all forms of denials of genocides or crimes against humanity, based on what has been done against the Holocaust deniers.
Such normative views of History are highly controversial. Striking
Above, Klaus Barbie photo on the fake admission document in Bolivia on behalf of Klaus Altmann, made in Genoa by the Consulate of Bolivia in Italy | Public Domain
Jacques Vergès, French lawyer involved in legal cases for high-profile defendants charged with terrorism or war crimes, including Nazi Klaus Barbie in 1987, terrorist Carlos the Jackal in 1994, and former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan in 2008. He also famously defended Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy in 1998 | Source: Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
( Flickr: Case 002 Initial Hearing) [ CC BY-SA 2.0
Observing Memories ISSUE 1
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