EU Explanation of Vote for Amendment- UN General Assembly 3rd Committee: Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
Chair,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.
The Candidate Countries Montenegro*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina* and Georgia, as well as San Marino align themselves with this statement.
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 is 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”. That report further noted 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 has been successfully included as OP 4 in the resolution for the past two years. The amendment is a factual statement, inextricably linked to the topic, underlining Russia’s politically motivated misuse of the anti-Nazism narrative to justify the unjustifiable.
It should be 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.51.
We strongly encourage the broader UN membership to also support the amendment by voting YES.
Thank you.