Project title

National Identity: Legal Challenges and Discursive Violence in Times of Turmoil

Research question

How do discursive practices attack national identity, and what legal mechanisms can be used to protect it from discriminatory and assimilationist rhetoric in public space?

Project description

Yuliya Krylova-Grek’s project is an interdisciplinary study that explores issues of human rights and national identity from legal, discursive, and historical perspectives. It aims to develop a framework for the concept of ‘crimes against identity’ and to examine this phenomenon through the example of public discourse in Russia. The research investigates how language can function as an instrument of assimilation and as a means of justifying further violence against national groups. Within this context, the project analyses the capacity of modern legal systems to respond to such practices.

The war against Ukraine has revealed serious shortcomings in both international and national legal frameworks: discursive attacks on identity remain extremely difficult to prosecute, and cultural genocide is still not recognised in law. Attention is also given to the inconsistencies between international and Ukrainian legislation, which hinder effective legal cooperation.

Krylova-Grek frames ‘crimes against identity’ within a human rights approach and evaluates the effectiveness of international law in addressing these challenges. The research seeks to propose concrete criteria for identifying such crimes and to highlight the legal inconsistencies that allow them to remain unpunished.

Selected publications