UCL LUNCH HOUR LECTURES

Thursday 28 January 2010

Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia (UCL Political Science)

Marking Holocaust remembrance day on 27 January, this lecture will focus on the status of Genocide denial, beginning with the Holocaust, but working through a number of 20th and 21st century genocides. Industries of denial spring up to counter the claims of victims of ethnic cleansing and genocide. The deniers or revisionists could be treated as other eccentric authors have, like quirky conspiracy theorists and UFO watchers. However, there seems to be something more sinister, more demanding of our attention, in this Genocide Denial Industry; something which requires a special attitude to its proponents.

To tackle this question, the lecture will move through a discussion of the ethical grounds for the special category of Genocide as a political crime and its relation to human rights. It will engage with the troubling question of censorship and freedom of expression, and will conclude by locating the special (im)moral status of denial in the nature of Genocide as a political crime.

Please note that due to a slight sound problem at 6:42 where Dr Meckled-Garcia first mentions the Armenian Genocide the word 'genocide' has inadvertently been blanked out by an imposed sound.