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The U.S. and Israel were two of only three countries to vote against a resolution in the UN to condemn the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations.
The resolution strongly condemns slavery and the trafficking of Africans and recognizes the impacts of the “abhorrent regimes of slavery and colonialism” and contemporary colonialism of Africa. It calls on member states to have a wide-ranging dialogue about “reparatory justice,” as well as the restitution of cultural properties that were stolen by colonialist states.
It also recognizes the “definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialized regimes of labour, property and capital.”
Experts say it is the furthest the UN has ever gone in its recognition of the atrocities of transatlantic slavery and the need for reparations.
The landmark resolution passed with 123 countries in favor, including every voting African country. Fifty-two countries abstained, including nearly all of Europe, Australia, Oman, and Japan.
Only three countries outright voted against it: The U.S., Israel, and Argentina.
The U.S.’s ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Trump nominee Dan Negrea, argued that slavery was not illegal under international law at the time, and therefore the tens of millions of people and families who suffered did not have a legal right to reparations. The current system of international law, under the United Nations, was not established until post-World War II.
In remarks to the UN, Negrea complained that the resolution works to “advance narrow, specific interests and agendas, to establish niche international days, [and] to create new costly meeting and reporting mandates.”
He added that “there are some fake news articles suggesting that the sponsors of this resolution called into question President Trump’s support of the Black community. We reject any such suggestions.” He asserted that “President Trump has done more for Black Americans than any other president,” ignoring the many ways that Trump has sought to actively harm Black people, as well as his openly racist remarks.
Some opposing countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., which abstained, said they objected to wording that suggested a “hierarchy” of atrocities. The U.S. and U.K. were major drivers of the global slave trade, and have supported Israel throughout its genocide in Gaza, another type of humanity’s most heinous crimes.
The resolution was introduced by Ghana, whose president, John Dramani Mahama, has emphasized the importance of remembering the horrors of transatlantic slave trafficking.
“When slaves were captured, they were always stripped of their clothing while being kept in the dungeons of the fortresses that had been built on the African coast by the European traders,” he said in remarks to UN officials this week. “They were forced with their limbs, chained, and shackled, into the hold of cargo ships,” he went on, noting that many ships sunk, killing all those aboard, while many others jumped off who “preferred death to captivity.”
“Whenever a ship arrived at its destination, the enslaved people, still naked, were taken to the market where they were inspected and appraised like livestock,” Mahama went on. “The people who were enslaved labored on these plantations from sunrise to sunset. And the conditions under which they worked were brutal.”
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