Frank Okon

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a record-breaking resolution condemning the Transatlantic Slave Trade and urging reparations for nations and peoples who were its victims. Spearheaded by Ghana, the resolution was adopted with 123 countries voting in favor, 52 abstentions, and three nations voting against.

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“Applause erupted in the UN General Assembly Hall on Wednesday as Member States adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity,” the UN stated in a daily briefing to Oracle Intelligence.

Speaking ahead of the vote on behalf of the 54-member African Group, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said: “Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice.”

For more than 400 years, millions of people were forcibly taken from Africa, stripped of their names and identities, and transported to the New World to toil in cotton fields, sugar plantations, and coffee estates under brutal conditions.

The resolution emphasizes that this systematic exploitation, and the racialized chattel enslavement of Africans, represents the gravest crime against humanity “by reason of 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.”

“These are the spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this moment, and they are listening for one word only: justice,” the resolution noted, highlighting the importance of reparatory measures as a concrete step toward remedying historical wrongs.

It also stressed that efforts to address the legacies of slavery should promote justice, human rights, dignity, and healing for Africans and the diaspora.

Opposition to the resolution came primarily from the United States, whose Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Dan Negrea, described the text as “highly problematic in countless respects.” He argued that the United Nations was founded to maintain international peace and security, not to advance narrow agendas, create new international days, or impose costly reporting and meeting obligations.

He further stated that Washington does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred.

The General Assembly also observed the International Day to Remember the Victims of Slavery.

Assembly President Annalena Baerbock remarked: “The slave trade and slavery stand among the gravest violations of human rights in human history – an affront to the very principles enshrined in the Charter of our United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, themselves born, in part, from these injustices of the past.”

She noted the economic impact on African nations, describing the removal of generations as “a hollowing out” that deprived communities of human capital and potential prosperity. “It was, to put it in colder terms, mass resource extraction,” she added.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on nations to confront slavery’s enduring legacies of inequality and racism.

“Now we must remove the persistent barriers that prevent so many people of African descent from exercising their rights and realizing their potential,” he said.

He highlighted ongoing frameworks, including the Second International Decade for People of African Descent and the African Union’s Decade of Reparations, urging countries to use them to accelerate action against systemic racism, ensure reparatory justice, and promote inclusive development with equitable access to education, healthcare, employment, housing, and a safe environment.

He added that bolder action is needed, including commitments to respect African countries’ ownership of natural resources and steps to ensure their equal participation in global financial institutions and the UN Security Council.

Cultural tributes were also part of the proceedings. Barbadian Poet Laureate Esther Philips read from works reflecting on the human cost of slavery, including a piece about a young girl walking across a former sugar plantation, unaware that her ancestors were buried there.

“There are spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this moment, and they are listening for one word only: justice,” she told delegates. “Because for them and for the world, there can be no peace without justice – reparatory justice – and that call is answered only when words are turned into action. The question is, what will you do?”

The resolution represents one of the UN’s most comprehensive statements on the historical and ongoing consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, reaffirming global recognition of its lasting social, economic, and moral impacts and signaling a renewed call for reparatory measures to address centuries of exploitation.