The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans “the gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations as “a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs.”
The resolution also urges “the prompt and unhindered restitution” of cultural items — including artworks, monuments, museum pieces, documents and national archives — to their countries of origin without charge.
The vote in the 193-member world body was 123-3, with 52 abstentions. Argentina, Israel and the United States were the three members voting against the resolution. The United Kingdom and all 27 members of the European Union were among those that abstained.
While the United States opposes the past wrongdoing of the transatlantic slave trade and all other forms of slavery, it “does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred,” deputy U.S. ambassador Dan Negrea said before the vote.
“The United States also strongly objects to the resolution’s attempt to rank crimes against humanity in any type of hierarchy,” he said. “The assertion that some crimes against humanity are less severe than others objectively diminishes the suffering of countless victims and survivors of other atrocities throughout history.”
In the United States, support for reparations gained momentum in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. However, the issue has been a difficult one and has been caught up in a broader conservative backlash over how race, history and inequality are handled in public institutions.
Unlike U.N. Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but are an important reflection of world opinion.
“Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice,” Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, a key architect of the resolution, said before the vote.
“The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting,” he said. “Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of the millions who suffered the indignity of slavery.”
Mahama noted that the vote was taking place on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, honoring the memory of about 13 million African men, women and children enslaved over several centuries.
Diplomats applauded and some cheered the adoption of the resolution.
The history of slavery and “its devastating consequences and long-lasting impacts” must never be forgotten, said British acting U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki, speaking on behalf of mainly Western nations, including some that enslaved Africans.
Western nations are committed to tackling the root causes that persist today, he said, pointing to racial discrimination, racism, xenophobia and intolerance. He said “the scourge of modern slavery” also must be addressed — trafficking, forced labor, sexual exploitation and forced criminality.
Cyprus’ deputy U.N. ambassador, Gabriella Michaelidou, speaking on behalf of the EU, echoed the U.S. and U.K. on concerns about “the use of superlatives” that imply “a hierarchy among atrocity crimes.”
Michaelidou also cited the EU’s concern about the resolution’s “unbalanced interpretation of historical events” and legal references that are inaccurate or inconsistent with international law, including “suggestions of a retroactive application of international rules which was non-existent at the time and claims for reparations.”
The resolution “unequivocally condemns the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans, slavery and the transatlantic slave trade as the most inhumane and enduring injustice against humanity.”
In approving the resolution, the General Assembly affirms the importance of addressing the historical wrongs of slavery that promotes “justice, human rights, dignity and healing.”
The resolution calls on U.N. member nations to engage in talks “on reparatory justice, including a full and formal apology, measures of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, guarantees of non-repetition and changes to laws, programs and services to address racism and systemic discrimination.”
It encourages voluntary contributions to promote education on the transatlantic slave trade and asks the African Union, the Caribbean Community and the Organization of American States to collaborate with U.N. bodies and other nations “on reparatory justice and reconciliation.”
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