EU Explanation of Votes – UN General Assembly 3rd Committee: Before the vote on amendment L. 56 on the resolution on glorification of Nazism
Chair,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina* and Georgia, as well as San Marino align themselves with this statement.
Please, don’t take our word for it.
Take instead the words of Professor E. Tendayi Achiume, Professor of Law at UCLA. Born in Zambia, later a legal clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and latterly the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.
In her report, in response to a previous edition of this resolution, she was unsparing in her criticism of the “blatant instrumentalization of … serious human rights concerns”.
The rest of her words will be familiar to you because they are quoted verbatim in L.56.
They are worth repeating. “The Special Rapporteur notes, 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. … The use of neo-Nazism as a pretext to justify territorial aggression seriously undermines genuine attempts to combat neo-Nazism. The Special Rapporteur denounces and condemns in the strongest terms such pretextual use, including in relation to the unlawful breach of the sovereign territory of Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis that breach has caused.”
We invite you to defend the integrity of this committee, and reject attempts to undermine it.
We urge all Member States to join us in voting YES to amendment L.56.
Thank you.
United Nations General Assembly
Third Committee, 80th Session
Resolution: “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”
EU Explanation of Vote (before the vote on the resolution L.2)
14 November 2025
Chair,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina* and Georgia, as well as San Marino align themselves with this statement.
There is something wrong in claiming to combat nationalism by denying the existence of a sovereign people. There is something dangerous in waging a war of aggression, supposedly in the name of peace. And there is something distasteful, especially in this week of remembrance for veterans, in seeking to exploit the United Nations – born to save us from “untold sorrow” – as a platform for propaganda.
Last year the Russian representative complained of being tired of cynicism and hypocrisy. Yet the recent letter circulated by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation contains 105 pages of distortion and disinformation, including unworthy and untrue personal attacks on the President of the General Assembly. Delegations may form their own views as to the precedent that this sets and what it means for them.
None of this will distract the European Union, its Member States and partners from what really matters: our common fight against contemporary forms of extremist and totalitarian ideologies. We are fully committed to the global fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred, and related intolerance. Unfortunately, the present resolution L.2[, even as amended,] does nothing to advance this work.
We therefore encourage all Member States to join us in voting NO.
Thank you.
*North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
*North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.