At the 46th meeting of the 75th United Nations General Assembly held on December 16, Russia’s resolution condemning “glorification of Nazism” received overwhelming support, but the United States and Ukraine voted against it, including most European delegations, including Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Abstain. Japan and Australia also abstained.
Resolution Bulletin on the United Nations Website
According to the United Nations news website on December 16, Russia has previously submitted a draft resolution calling on Member States to adopt legislation to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination and condemning “any form of glorification of the Nazi movement, neo-Nazism and former SS member organizations”. In addition, the resolution condemns revisionism against World War II.
The General Assembly first took a recorded vote, and the member states adopted the “Other Act against the Protection of Nazism, Neo-Nazm and the Fuelling of Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance” by 130 votes to 2 against (the United States and Ukraine) and 51 abstentions. Draft resolution I of the Act.
Russia Today (RT) reporter Brian MacDonald tweeted a live view of the vote. In addition to the opposition of the United States and Ukraine, countries including Germany, Belgium, France, Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Australia abstained.
Polling map uploaded by MacDonald, US and Ukraine in the upper right corner
As stipulated by the General Assembly, after the adoption of the resolution, the General Assembly will express deep concern about the glorification of former members of the Nazi movement, neo-Nazism and SS organizations. These acts include the construction of Nazi monuments, the holding of Nazi public demonstrations, and the celebration of the Nazi past, the Nazi movement and neo-Nazism.
“Russia Today” commented that in today’s highly tense relations between Russia and Western countries, the resolution condemning Nazism seems to be a consensus that all parties can still reach. After all, the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States worked together to defeat Nazi Germany. Today, Russia holds a victory parade every year to celebrate the defeat of the Nazis. In the United Kingdom and the United States, politicians will end their political careers if they are accused of sympathizing with the Nazis alone.
But even so, the United States and Ukraine voted against it. And 51 countries, including EU member states, abstained from voting. Ironically, even Germany, which once said it was “permanently responsible” for Nazi atrocities, abstained.
Russia Today said that Ukraine’s vote against it was also a “political satire”. In Ukrainian politics, neo-Nazi organizations have some power, some of which are accused of committing war crimes and torture during the civil war in southeastern Ukraine. Among them, a military organization called Azov Battalion is also equipped with American weapons.
The United States claimed that it opposed the Russian resolution and had nothing to do with the neo-Nazi organization that supported Ukraine. The Russian side has introduced the same resolution every year, and the United States has objected every time, arguing that the prohibition of “glamorizing Nazism” conflicts with the First Amendment to the Constitution, which protects freedom of expression.
The vote came a month before the U.S. Mission to the United Nations said that even “publicly recognized Nazis” were protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, although Nazism was “widely contempted by the American people”. U.S. diplomats also accused Russia of using the resolution to add content to its “false narrative” about neighboring neo-Naziism.
In response to this vote, McDonald tweeted: “What about Ukraine, but the United States voted against it? It now hates Russia so much that it refuses to condemn Nazism just to make Moscow difficult.”
