Chair,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the European Union.

The European Union is fully committed to the global fight against violent extremism, racism, including antisemitism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Muslim hatred, and related intolerance.

This year’s resolution on Combating glorification of Nazism is presented as a technical rollover, which is not correct. We cannot accept that Russia has removed OP 4 which “Notes with alarm that the Russian Federation has sought to justify its territorial aggression against Ukraine on the purported basis of eliminating neo-Nazism, and underlines that the pretextual use of neo-Nazism to justify territorial aggression seriously undermines genuine attempts to combat neo-Nazism”

This was a quote from the report on “Combatting glorification of Nazism prepared by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance” presented last year.

That report further noted “with alarm, that the Russian Federation has sought to justify its military invasion and territorial aggression in Ukraine on the purported basis of eliminating neo-Nazism. This is a blatant instrumentalization of the serious human rights concerns raised by neo-Nazi mobilizations where they exist.”

The amendment in front of us was successfully included as OP 4 in last year’s resolution. It is based on paragraph 70 of the Special Rapporteur’s report from last year. The amendment is a factual statement, which underlines Russia’s politically motivated misuse of the anti-Nazism narrative to justify the unjustifiable.

It should be abundantly clear to everyone that the Russian Federation has used the false narrative of ‘denazification’ to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine, to violate human rights, breach the UN Charter and violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of an independent UN Member state.

For all the reasons just outlined, the Member States of the European Union will vote YES on amendment L.58.

We strongly encourage the broader UN membership to also support the amendment by voting YES.

Thank you.