The United Nations General Assembly has formally declared the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement as “the gravest crime against humanity”, adopting the measure as Resolution A/80/L.48.
In the General Assembly Hall on Wednesday, most Member States applauded the resolution. Spearheaded by Ghana, the motion passed with 123 votes in favor, while Argentina, Israel, and the United States voted against it, and 52 countries abstained.
The resolution emphasizes that the trafficking and chattel enslavement of Africans constitutes 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.”
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“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.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated, “Now we must remove the persistent barriers that prevent so many people of African descent from exercising their rights and realizing their potential,” as he called for confronting slavery’s lasting legacies of inequality and racism.
Describing the move as “historic,” the Chairperson of the African Union Commission said it advances truth, justice, and healing while underscoring the need to address slavery’s enduring legacy. He praised Ghana’s leadership in advancing Africa’s long-standing call for the formal acknowledgment of the slave trade and its consequences.
