Always the Same Map

The "West" has quite clearly argued that the text as-is reduces the fight against Nazism as a very one-dimensional "good vs bad". And since Russia justified its invasion of Ukraine as a "denazification effort", the resolution seems to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Because of this, the following text was added as an amendment by Australia this year:

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.

Russia was very much against this and condemned the move to add this. It was adopted anyway in a major loss for Russia.

It should be mentioned that the special rapporteur cited in the resolution was also against this resolution as a whole, calling it a "blatant instrumentalization of serious human rights concerns".

The EU stated the following when Russia put this up for a vote last year:

Our joint fight against contemporary forms of extremist and totalitarian ideologies, including neo-Nazism, is and remains a key priority. The EU stands firmly against all forms of antisemitism, which is incompatible with the core values and principles on which the EU is founded. The EU and its Member States have taken extensive legal and policy measures to combat acts of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

We support and encourage a constructive discussion in the context of the global rise in neo-Nazism and antisemitism. This resolution, on the contrary, abuses this agenda and continues to put an emphasis in a selective and twisted manner on issues that in essence are far from combatting racism and discrimination. It is a thinly veiled attempt by the Russian Federation to promote its own distorted version of history under the guise of combating neo-Nazism. It is important to remember that for many European countries the end of the Second World War did not bring freedom but further occupation and exploitation, more repression and crimes against humanity by other totalitarian regimes.

We strongly condemn the politically motivated misuse of the anti-Nazism narrative, and unequivocally reject the inaccurate and misleading use of the term ‘denazification’ to justify Russia’s inhumane, cruel and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. This undermines genuine efforts to combat neo-Nazism. As does turning a resolution that should be dealing with a serious issue into a vehicle for propaganda and disinformation. As the aggression against Ukraine continues, we have seen the Russian Federation continuing to misuse and abuse UN fora to spread this false narrative.

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

All states that have voted against have put out similar statements, saying they agree with the sentiment but not with the resolution itself.