UN General Assembly Adopts Russian Resolution on Combating Glorification of Nazism

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - The UN General Assembly adopted on Thursday a Russian resolution to combat the glorification of Nazism, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

The document entitled "Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" was adopted in a 120-50 vote, with 10 abstentions.

The United States, Ukraine, EU member states, including Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Japan and others voted against. Israel, India, China and Serbia were among those countries that supported the Russian-drafted resolution. Turkey, South Korea, Switzerland and Afghanistan abstained.

Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gennady Kuzmin on Friday called the voting results "shocking."

"The voting results this year are shocking. For the first time in the UN's history, former Axis member states voted against the document which condemns Nazism and confirms the inviolability of the outcomes of World War II," Kuzmin said.

United Nations General Assembly hall in New York City.

CC BY-SA 2.0 / Patrick Gruban /

This resolution is adopted by the UN General Assembly annually.

The document urges states to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination by all appropriate means, including, if circumstances require so, by legislation.

In addition, the resolution strongly condemns the use of educational materials, as well as rhetoric in the course of training, that promotes racism, discrimination, hatred and violence based on ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief.