UNITED NATIONS, November 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and a group of other countries has submitted a draft resolution to a UN committee condemning the glorification of Nazism.
The draft put forward Tuesday is aimed at condemning “modern forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia.”
Russia’s UN representative Grigory Lukyantsev said the resolution is aimed at addressing “concern over the escalation of extreme groups, like neo-Nazi and skinheads using violence.”
If approved at committee level, the resolution will be submitted for a vote at the UN General Assembly.
The UN General Assembly last year adopted a separate resolution submitted by Russia condemning the construction of memorials in honor of former Nazis and the holding of public pro-Nazi demonstrations.
It was approved by the majority of the UN member states, but was rejected by a number of countries, including the United States and Canada, while 54 countries abstained from voting.
First Amendment rights granting freedom of expression in the United States have been used in the past by white supremacists to legally justify the public use of extremist political views.
The previous UN resolution on holding public pro-Nazi demonstrations was opposed, among other countries, by the former Soviet Baltic states of in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Russia has expressed frequent umbrage at annual rallies of Waffen-SS veterans in Estonia and Latvia, where people oppressed by the Soviet regime chose during World War II to join forces with the invading Nazi forces.
