Mister Chair,

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

The Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, and Albania*, align themselves with this statement.

Equality and non-discrimination are core values of the European Union, and the fight against contemporary forms of all extremist and totalitarian ideologies, including neo-Nazism, is a priority. The European Union reiterates its strong commitment to the global fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and related intolerance. The EU and its Member States have taken extensive legal and policy measures to combat such acts. The fight against contemporary forms of all extremist and totalitarian ideologies, including neo-Nazism, must be a priority for the whole international community through the full implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and other relevant human rights treaties.

As in previous years, the EU engaged constructively in informal consultations organized by the main sponsor of the resolution by proposing to strengthen the references to human rights language, by suggesting a more inclusive approach, and by proposing compromise language. We have noted that, while some changes were made in the text, many fundamental and long-term concerns remain unaddressed.

We reiterate our concern that the language throughout the resolution continues to address too restrictively the human rights to freedom of expression and to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association enshrined in the ICCPR.

We regret that this resolution still does not address all contemporary forms of racist extremism in an impartial, transparent, balanced and comprehensive manner, while it continues to put emphasis on issues, which are not linked to human rights and to combating racism and discrimination in a selective and biased manner.

In some instances, new politicised language was introduced, or further negatively reinforced. The fight against racism does and must include history teaching, including the history of National Socialism and other totalitarian regimes. However, the vagueness of the newly introduced notion of ‘historic truth’ is problematic as unrelated to the international human rights law. As such, it paves the way for the distortion of historical facts about the consequences of the Second World War, as does the continued existence in public spaces in some Member States of monuments and memorials glorifying totalitarian regimes.

The fight against racism should not be misused for politically motivated issues that not only fall outside the scope of the human rights agenda, but also aim at monopolizing the fight against Nazism by providing a one-sided interpretation of history, and could even be seen as an attempt to justify the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact.

In this regard, the EU also regrets the resolution includes divisive elements referring to the revisionism and falsification of history contributing to further politicization of this resolution.

Mister Chair,

We pay tribute to the historic role of all allied forces in the defeat of Nazism. We should also remember that for many European countries the end of the Second World War did not bring freedom but rather more occupation resulting in repressive policies, continuous violations and abuses of human rights, and more crimes against humanity inspired by totalitarian ideologies.

While the EU continues to recommend the biennalisation of this resolution, we are ready to continue engaging constructively with the cosponsors.

We would like to stress again that the tragic past of the Second World War should continue to serve as a moral and political inspiration to face the challenges of today’s world, including the fight for a fairer world, respectful of human rights and fundamental freedoms, creating open and tolerant societies and communities, free from all forms of discrimination including on grounds of sex, race, ethnic or social origin, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, disability, age, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and promoting democracy and human rights.

For all these reasons, the Member States of the European Union abstained on resolution L.57.

Thank you, Mister Chair.

* The Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.