Dogmatism, Hypocrisy and the Inadequacy of Legal and Social Responses Combating Hate Crimes and Extremism: The CEE Experience
In: Stewart Michael (ed.): The Gypsy 'Menace': Populism and the New Anti-Gypsy Politics London: Columbia University Press, 2012. pp. 295-311.
10 Pages Posted: 1 Jan 2014
Date Written: 2012
Abstract
This paper was written as a response to an unprecedented series of lethal attacks against Roma in 2008 and 2009 in Hungary. The issues raised in the paper, however, touch on a broader set of questions. The following pages convey the frustration of a Central East European human rights lawyer facing the misdirection and misinterpretation of the constitutional role of certain human rights principles and arguments, which (i) disarm crucial defence mechanisms constitutional democracies have and need to mobilise countering anti-democratic extremist movements, and (ii) practically prevent efficient legal action against discrimination and obstruct combating hate crimes in particular. I argue that the lack of readjustment of both the legislative formulation and the practical interpretation of a number of classic human rights (such as free speech, freedom of assembly, protection of informational privacy), which were essential tools and both symbolic as well as practical achievements in the process of the political transition, seriously threaten the functioning of the new and fragile liberal democracies in the CEE region.
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