This chapter will present the legislation defining antisemitism and denial of the Holocaust, explicitly and in the language of the law as an offence in the law books, as differentiated from general legislation dealing with preserving the rights of various groups of human beings. Among those covered, there are at least seven countries which have entered specific legislation into the law books dealing with the subject of antisemitism. They are: Romania, Spain, Mexico, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Austria.

One other country, Latvia, began preparing a draft law on the subject in April 2004. According to the laws of these countries, antisemitism is an explicit violation of the law. However, there are countries such as Russia in which, while laws do exist that might be interpreted as prohibiting antisemitism, they are not explicit and are rarely enforced. On the other hand, there are those countries which do not have laws specifically against antisemitism, but which strongly combat it with the aid of other laws dealing with discrimination…