UN resolution urges reparations for slavery’s ‘historical wrongs’

This article is published in association with United Nations.

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 resolution spearheaded by Ghana received 123 votes in favour.  Three countries – Argentina, Israel and the United States – voted against and 52 abstained.  

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

UN Photo/Manuel Elías

President John Mahama of Ghana addresses the UN General Assembly on the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Stolen, shackled, shipped 

For more than 400 years, millions of people were stolen from Africa, put in shackles and shipped to the New World to toil in cotton fields and sugar and coffee plantations under scorching heat and the crack of the whip. 

Denied their basic humanity and even their own names, they were forced to endure generations of exploitation with repercussions that reverberate today including persistent anti-Black racism and discrimination. 

The resolution emphasised “the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as 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.” 

There are spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this moment, and they are listening for one word only: justice.

Esther Philips, First Poet Laureate of Barbados

UN News/Elizabeth Scaffidi

A slavery memorial in Stone Town, Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania.

Address wrongs, support reparations 

It affirmed the importance of addressing historical wrongs affecting Africans and people of the diaspora in a manner that promotes justice, human rights, dignity and healing, while emphasising that claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedy.    

The text was “highly problematic in countless respects,” Ambassador Dan Negrea, US representative to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), said prior to the vote. 

He regretted that Washington “must once again remind this body that the United Nations exists to maintain international peace and security” and “was not founded to advance narrow specific interests and agendas, to establish niche International Days, or to create new costly meeting and reporting mandates.” 

Furthermore, the US “does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred.” 

A grave human rights violation 

The horrors of slavery echoed in the General Assembly Hall as Member States commemorated the International Day to remember its victims. 

“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,” said Assembly President Annalena Baerbock. 

The countries where enslaved Africans were taken from also suffered “a hollowing out” having lost entire generations who potentially could have helped them to prosper. 

“It was, to put it in colder terms, mass resource extraction,” she said. 

Remove persistent barriers 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for confronting slavery’s lasting 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 realising their potential,” he said. 

“We must commit — fully and without hesitation — to human rights, equality, and the inherent worth of every person.”  

In this regard, the Second International Decade for People of African Descent and the African Union’s Decade of Reparations are significant. 

Respect for African countries 

He urged countries to use them to drive action to eradicate systemic racism, ensure reparatory justice and accelerate inclusive development, marked by equal access to education, health, employment, housing, and a safe environment. 

“But far bolder actions — by many more States — are needed,” he added. 

“This includes commitments to respect African countries’ ownership of their own natural resources. And steps to ensure their equal participation and influence in the global financial architecture and the UN Security Council.” 

No peace without reparatory justice 

The Poet Laureate of Barbados, Esther Philips, read from some of her works including a piece about a young girl walking on the grounds of a former sugar plantation and not understanding its historical significance as her ancestors buried there look on.  

“There are spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this moment, and they are listening for one word only: justice,” Ms. Philips 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?”