The United Nations adopted a resolution declaring that the trafficking of enslaved Africans is the “most inhumane and enduring injustice against humanity.” The resolution, led by Ghana, received 123 votes in favor. Argentina, Israel, and the United States voted against it, with 52 countries abstaining.
The resolution further states that the “legacies of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade persist today in the form of structural racism, racial inequalities, underdevelopment, marginalization and socioeconomic disparities affecting Africans and people of African descent in all parts of the world.”
It goes on to affirm the “importance of addressing historical wrongs affecting Africans and people of African descent in a manner that promotes justice, human rights, dignity and healing,” and states that claims for reparations “represent a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs against Africans and people of African descent.”
“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 ahead of the vote.
Ambassador Dan Negrea, the U.S. representative to the U.N., said the resolution was “highly problematic in countless respects,” and criticized that the United States “must once again remind this body that the United Nations exists to maintain international peace and security.” Negrea stated that the U.N. “was not founded to advance narrow specific interests and agendas, to establish niche International Days, or to create new costly meeting and reporting mandates.”
The United States “does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred,” Negrea added.
