UN votes to describe slave trade as ‘gravest crime against humanity’

The United Nations has officially labeled the transatlantic chattel slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” and urged reparations as “a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs,” following the adoption of a landmark resolution on Wednesday.

The resolution, supported by the African Union (AU) and the Caribbean Community (Caricom), was introduced by Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama. He stated: “Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of millions who suffered the indignity of slavery.”

A total of 123 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while Argentina, Israel, and the United States opposed it. Fifty-two countries abstained, including the United Kingdom and several European Union member states.

The UK acknowledged the seriousness of the issues addressed and the immense suffering caused by the transatlantic slave trade over centuries. However, James Kariuki, Britain’s chargé d’affaires to the UN, expressed disagreement with key elements of the resolution, emphasizing that no hierarchy should be created among historical atrocities. He said no single atrocity should be considered more or less significant than another.

At the same time in New York, British MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy presented a petition to the House of Commons calling for an official state apology for the UK’s role in slavery and the colonization of African nations.

The petition highlighted that many global challenges today—including geopolitical instability, racism, inequality, underdevelopment, and climate change—are rooted in the legacy of slavery and empire. It stressed the importance of acknowledging these origins in order to address them effectively.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, seven European nations, including the UK, enslaved and transported more than 15 million Africans across the Atlantic. The scale of this system led abolitionists in the 18th and 19th centuries to coin the term “crime against humanity.” Historians have also connected profits from slavery to large-scale industrialization in Western countries.

Jasmine Mickens, a postgraduate student of history and government at Harvard University, noted that referring to slavery as a “trade” misrepresents its nature, emphasizing that it was not a consensual economic activity.

Ghana has played a leading role in advancing calls for reparatory justice across Africa and the Caribbean, advocating for updated terminology that reflects the enduring impact of chattel slavery.

Experts involved in drafting the resolution say its purpose is to secure political recognition at the highest level for one of history’s darkest periods. Kyeretwie Osei explained that the aim is not to rank atrocities but to accurately contextualize the transatlantic slave trade and its far-reaching consequences. He described it as a transformative event that laid the foundation for subsequent crimes against humanity.

He further explained that chattel slavery reduced human beings to property that could be bought, sold, inherited, and passed down through generations by birth.

The United Nations had previously recognized slavery as a crime during a 2001 conference against racism, xenophobia, and related intolerance held in Durban, South Africa.

Panashe Chigumadzi, a historian and rapporteur for the AU’s committee of experts on reparations, stated that the earlier conference had limitations, including framing slavery as a retrospective moral judgment rather than an ongoing legal issue.

She added that the AU’s framework identifies the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans during the so-called “age of discovery” as a decisive turning point in global history. According to her, it marked the shift from localized feudal systems to a modern racial capitalist order that reshaped global systems of labor, property, and sovereignty—effects that persist today.

Although the resolution is not legally binding, it is expected to encourage further progress toward reparatory justice. Advocates note that momentum has been slowed in some regions by the rise of right-wing political movements.

In recent years, the AU has intensified efforts to formally define chattel slavery as a crime requiring not only apologies but also material reparations.

Mickens emphasized that the current moment builds on a long history of resistance by African and Black communities against enslavement and trafficking. She noted that such resistance has existed since the earliest instances of these crimes on African shores.

Prior to the vote, Mahama also raised concerns about the continued erasure of Black history in the United States, citing growing restrictions on teaching about slavery, segregation, and racism in schools.

He warned that such policies risk becoming models for other governments and institutions, contributing to a gradual normalization of historical erasure.