EU leaders to push for ban on Nazi symbols

News

EU leaders to push for ban on Nazi symbols

January 28, 2005 09:32:00 am

[JURIST] Luxembourg Justice Minister Luc Frieden [official profile], speaking Friday at a meeting of EU justice ministers, has called for the European Union to institute a ban on the use of Nazi symbols as part of a larger effort to punish hate crimes motivated by racism or xenophobia. Luxembourg holds the Presidency of the EU [official website] through June 2005. The ban on hate crimes has been under consideration since 2001. The Nazi symbols ban has gained momentum in the last month in the wake of this week's commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz [JURIST report] and outrage over British Prince Harry's wearing of a swastika armband to a recent costume party [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

1:22 PM ET – The Luxembourg EU Presidency has issued a press release of Frieden's statement.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Congress set minimum federal sentences for drug offenders

On November 2, 1951, President Harry Truman signed the "Boggs Act" into law, setting minimum federal sentences for drug offenders.

Read Richard J. Bonnie and Charles Whitebread, The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry Into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition, 56 Virginia Law Review (1970).

Balfour Declaration issued

On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour issued the United Kingdom's formal statement regarding Jewish people in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration was later endorsed by the World War I Allied Powers. It stated the British intention to support a national homeland for Jewish people and became a cornerstone of the Zionist movement.

Read the full Balfour Declaration as well as other documents regarding Israeli-Palestinian relations from the BBC.