The United Nations has classified the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity.” While the majority of Europe abstained, three countries voted against.
March 26, 2026, 05:54March 26, 2026, 05:54
123 states voted in the UN General Assembly for a resolution introduced by Ghana. Israel, the USA and Argentina voted against the text. Switzerland and 51 other countries abstained, according to the voting results published by the UN. The resolution is not legally binding. Among other things, it also calls for the free “immediate and unhindered return” of cultural goods and art objects to their countries of origin.
The European UN headquarters in Geneva.Image: keystone
The text of the resolution said that the trade in enslaved people from Africa and their racially based enslavement “should be assessed as the most serious crime against humanity due to the profound break in world history, its extent, its duration, its systemic character, its brutality and its consequences that continue to this day”.
Resolution meets US resistance
US representative Dan Negrea called the resolution highly problematic and said the confederation was not founded to advance specific interests and agendas and “establish niche international days,” as the UN website said. The vote falls on Memorial Day for the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.
Especially between the 16th and 19th centuries, several million people in Africa were enslaved and taken to North and South America and the Caribbean. A number of them did not survive the crossing. The slave trade was banned in Great Britain on March 25, 1807. In the United States, slavery was officially banned in all states in 1865. Slavery was banned worldwide in 1948 with the UN Human Rights Convention. (sda/dpa)