A United Nation General Assembly resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans “the gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparatory justice for enslaved Africans and their descendants was approved on Wednesday by a majority of countries.
Most European countries, such as Britain and France, dissociated themselves from the resolution, while the United States, Israel and Argentina all voted against it.
The draft text, led by Ghana, was adopted during the commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, marked by the Assembly on March 25.
The resolution “is not about apportioning blame across generations or nations,” said Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s minister of foreign affairs, to journalists after the Assembly vote. “It is not about reopening old wounds; it is about ensuring that those wounds are neither forgotten nor denied. It is about creating space for truth for education and for a more honest conversation that allows us to move forward with greater understanding.”
The resolution, he added, “is to deepen our collective moral awareness.”
The vote garnered 123 votes in favor, three no ballots and 52 abstentions, including all 27 members of the European Union and 25 other countries, such as Canada and Japan. Russia and China voted yes, in keeping with their general support of global South countries.
Perhaps the most controversial paragraph of the resolution was the recognition of slavery as a violation of jus cogens, or peremptory norms of international law that are universally accepted and binding on all countries.
The text called on member states to engage in “inclusive, good-faith dialogue” on reparatory justice, encompassing formal apologies, restitution, compensation, rehabilitation and guarantees of nonrepetition.
Western countries have historically opposed measures that could be construed as establishing action that imposes retroactive legal liabilities.
“The United States also does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred,” Dan Negrea, an ambassador of the US to the UN, said at the Assembly, explaining the Trump administration’s no vote.
“The United States strongly objects to the cynical usage of historical wrongs as a leverage point in an attempt to reallocate modern resources to people and nations who are distantly related to the historical victims,” Negrea added.
Washington also objected to the financial implications of the resolution on the UN itself, as it grapples with shrinking liquidity flow, mostly brought on by the US nonpayment of its mandated UN dues of approximately $4.2 billion. The text requests the UN secretary-general to submit a report “on the actions taken by States in implementation of the present resolution.” A UN Secretariat official told the Assembly that the report would cost $117,700 for the UN staff to produce and $12,800 in other assessments, with both to be included in the UN’s 2027 general operating budget.
The resolution marked major progress since the establishment in 2007 of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, commemorated on March 25, when the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in Britain in 1807. The act banned the trade of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, but it did not end slavery. The Ghanaian coast was a major hub of the trans-Atlantic slave trade for centuries.
Ghana led the negotiations for the nonbinding Assembly resolution over at least a year’s time. John Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s president and the African Union Champion for Reparations, said a vote for the resolution is a stand on the right side of history.
“This resolution allows us as a global community to collectively bear witness to the plight of more than 12.5 million men, women and children whose homes, communities, names, families, hopes, dreams, futures and lives were stolen from them over the course of 400 years,” Mahama said at a meeting held at the UN headquarters in New York City on March 24.
“This resolution is a pathway to healing and reparative justice,” he added. “This resolution is a safeguard against forgetting.”
The European Union cited similar concerns as Washington in its abstentions. The representative of Cyprus, speaking for the bloc, said the proponent of the resolution failed to “adequately reflect” concerns raised during negotiations. One issue raised by the EU was the use of the word “gravest” in the resolution, saying such a term is legally inaccurate.
“When no legal hierarchy between crimes against humanity exists, it risks undermining the harm suffered by all victims of these crimes and lacks legal clarity crucial for ensuring accountability,” Gabriella Michaelidou, the deputy permanent representative of Cyprus, said on behalf of the EU.
“We are also concerned by certain legal references and assertions that are either inaccurate or inconsistent with international law,” she added. “This includes suggestions of a retroactive application of international rules which were nonexistent at the time and claims for reparations, which is incompatible with established principles of international law.”
Striving for reconciliation
Introducing the draft text just before the vote in the General Assembly, Ablakwa of Ghana said the text did not target individual countries. Instead, it was a framework for reconciliation.
“It is focused on truth, remembrance, education and dialogue,” Ablakwa said. “It is grounded not in retribution, but in moral recognition, and it is intended to strengthen global efforts to combat racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia in all its forms. Its objectives are clear, to provide formal and unequivocal recognition within the United Nations system.”
Before the vote by the Assembly, Secretary-General António Guterres called for “far bolder actions” from countries to end the pillaging of African resources and to ensure the continent’s “equal participation and influence in the global financial architecture and the UN Security Council.”
“We cannot continue to tolerate racial violence or bigotry,” Guterres said. “We cannot keep letting inequality and injustice be ignored. We must turn memory into progress and remembrance into responsibility.”
Annalena Baerbock, president of the General Assembly, said that while slavery was abolished in the 19th century, it has continued in modern-day form through forced labor, human trafficking and debt bondage.
“We must therefore be tireless in pursuit of justice,” Baerbock said, “ensuring that we remain active participants in the pursuit of dignity, accountability and equality across generations.”
Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
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African tribes were the one to sell their own people into slavery.
Hit the nail on the head.
A big thank you Damilola for this contribution to Humanity. The great leadership of Ghana paid of despite the strong opposition of the United States of America, Europe, Israel and Argentina, all these countries even today are committing crimes against humanity, and they have zero respect for international law, human dignity and human rights! We shall never forget these heinous and destructive crimes against the Africans wherever they are! Today the fight is on against their modern slavery, imperialism and exploitation of Africa (dixit speech of Marco Rubio at the last Munich Conference)!
Hi, To give my opinion on this resolution , I would like to read it. Please provide a link to the text of the resolution.
https://docs.un.org/en/A/80/L.48
Utterly stupid,a waste of time , just like the UN. An organization run by third world countries with no financial stake in anything pertinent to furthering the modern world. Nearly as stupid as DRIPPA.