UN Human Rights Council 50: UK statement on Contemporary Forms of Racism

Thank you,

The United Kingdom thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report on combating the glorification of Nazism.

Let us be clear: neo-Nazism has no place in any of our societies.

That is why in 2025, we will open a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre to remind us why we must be relentless in the fight against Holocaust denial and distortion, antisemitism, and their repellent sibling ideology – neo-Nazism.

We share the Special Rapporteur’s alarm that Russia has sought to justify its military invasion in Ukraine with outlandish claims that Ukraine is controlled by neo-Nazis.

The Kremlin’s false statements dishonour those who fought to defeat Nazism in Europe.

They cause real pain to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

Putin is trying to distract us, and the Russian people, with disinformation because he knows, as well as we do, that none of his excuses for invading Ukraine hold water.

The simple truth is that Putin is responsible for the needless deaths of thousands of men, women and children.

Special Rapporteur,

Instead of spreading falsehoods about Ukraine, what must the Russian government do to tackle racism, xenophobia and related intolerance in Russia itself?