Why did the US, Britain, France, Denmark and Sweden vote against the UN resolution that condemned Nazism and SS glorification?

Russia offers that resolution in the UN every year 2006-2017.... In general the US position is Russia uses the specter of Nazism, an enemy defeated more than seven decades ago, as a straw man to justify modern threats and at times attacks on it's neighboring countries. The United States further objects to the text of the resolution which "restricts freedom of speech and association".

Why Canada Voted Against Resolution At UN To Combat 'Glorification Of Nazism'
Russia has claimed for months that neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists are working with Ukrainian nationalists. Last April, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his troops intervened in Crimea because he could see "neo-Nazis rearing their heads" in the Ukrainian government.

And, earlier this month, Putin told a German television program he was concerned right-wing nationalists in Ukraine could cause the country to "drift toward neo-Nazism."

US opposes UN resolution against glorifying Nazism
The United States objected to the resolution, saying it had too narrow a scope and that it was being used as a political weapon by Russia to attack its neighboring countries. The U.S. also objected to the resolution's limits on freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to peaceful assembly.

“We condemn without reservation all forms of religious and ethnic intolerance or hatred at home and around the world,” Deputy U.S. Representative to the Economic and Social Council Stefanie Amadeo said, according to the AP.

“However, due to this resolution’s overly narrow scope and politicized nature, and because it calls for unacceptable limits on the fundamental freedom of expression, the United States cannot support it,” she said.

The United Nations and Antisemitism, 2008-2017 Report Card
Since 2006, the General Assembly has passed an annual Russian-sponsored resolution on “combating the glorification of Nazism.”96 Since 2014, this resolution has condemned Holocaust denial. And in 2016, general language was added expressing concern about the “alarming increase in instances of discrimination, intolerance and extremist violence motivated by antisemitism, Islamophobia and Christianophobia.”97 However, earlier versions of the resolution did not mention the Holocaust or antisemitism

While at first glance the resolution may appear positive, it is understood to be a politicized Russian bid to portray its Baltic neighbors as fascists. The United States has objected that the text restricts freedom of speech and association,98 and has called out Russia’s motives, claiming that it uses Nazism as a pretext to justify attacks on neighboring countries.99 In rejecting the 2017 resolution and proposing amendments, U.S. Ambassador Kelley Currie explained that the resolution is a “cynical exercise, born from a political controversy decades removed from the defeat of the Nazis.” The Russian bid was in fact “an annual power play by one nation over its sovereign neighbors,” which sought “to exert a sphere of influence over a region” and “to criminalize free speech and expression without any genuine effort to effectively combat actual Nazism, discrimination, or anti-Semitism.”

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Beyond that and with an eye towards history, Russia's use of Nazism to justify and gain domestic popular support for it's military adventures requires the obfuscation of the fact that the Soviet Union was an essential Nazi ally at the beginning of World War II. Something it now demonizes her neighbors for. That the Pact which emboldened Hitler to begin WWII by attacking Poland was with Stalin who agreed to divide the conquest of Poland and the Baltic states in a secret protocol of that treaty. (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact). That this protocol was denied by the Soviet Union up until nearly the year the Soviet Union ceased to exist, 1989. Russia's modern preoccupation with Nazism as a boogie man falls back and relies on the continued obfuscation of this inconvenient historic fact.

Stalin and German Foreign minister Ribbentrop shake hands August 23, 1939 after signing an agreement to an alliance which includes non aggression as well as a secret protocol to divide Poland and the Baltic States between Germany and the Soviet Union. A pact Hitler would break Jun 22, 1941.

• The United Nations and Antisemitism, 2008-2017 Report Card
• US opposes UN resolution against glorifying Nazism
• Why Canada Voted Against Resolution At UN To Combat 'Glorification Of Nazism'
• Moscow enters a decisive stage in subverting the history of its neighbors and World War II
• the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

However, it would also be interesting what the reasoning was behind the european abstaining votes.

Based on memory, where a general discussion about this resolution took place, one reason why European countries abstained would probably be because of clause 8(d) was also a part of the resolution that was voted on:

To declare illegal and prohibit organizations and organized and all other propaganda activities that promote and incite racial discrimination and to recognize participation in such organizations or activities as an offence punishable by law;

Since this resolution is calling for States to undertake theses measures. Under States, Governments are understood.

In the past, the government's of the day have proven often enough to not always being impartial, as apposed to courts.

That is why in most Europian countries, only a high Court can forbid a party. In Germany Bundesverfassungsgericht §21(4) Grundgesetz, thus causing constitutional problems.

Since the resolution did not foresee that soly impartial institutions were to be used to inforce it, many abstained.

Also it was considered one sided. The Khmer Rouge, a left wing political organization that caused the death of about 25% of Cambodia's population, would have been worthy of being meantioned (at least in clause 5). But only right wing organizations were listed.

So in the end, the resolution was considered a

• good idea, but badly implemented

Draft resolution I was adopted by 121 votes to 4, with 60 abstentions
(resolution 61/147). 19th December 2006

Belarus and Russia were the only European countries that voted for the Resolution

• all of the other European countries abstained

Against:
Japan, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), United States of America

Abstaining:
Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Cape Verde, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu

I have no specific knowledge of the history of that particular resolution. Reading over it, the wording does seem somewhat inconsistent with the rights of US citizens, described in this case by the first amendment to the constitution.

In the USA we have laws against advocating the violent overthrow of the government, and against general incitement to violence. But as long as they stay away from that line, all groups (even those that most of us find morally repugnant like neo-Nazis and the KKK) have a right to exist, proselytize, and peacefully assemble just like anyone else.

We are much more afraid of giving the government the power to decide who can or can't have free speech and assembly rights than we are about a few idiots who like to wear black and goosestep around in their free time.

A lot of the rest of the world is run by governments that do not recognize these rights, deciding who can or can't speak or assemble, judging what may or may not be said, so it may not seem like a big deal to them.