The United States, Israel and Argentina were the only nations to vote against the resolution.<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 The U.N. General Assembly<\/a> on Wednesday passed a resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans \u201cthe gravest crime against humanity\u201d and calling for reparations as \u201ca concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs.\u201d<\/p>\n The resolution also urges \u201cthe prompt and unhindered restitution\u201d of cultural items \u2014 including artworks, monuments, museum pieces, documents and national archives \u2014 to their countries of origin without charge.<\/p>\n The vote in the 193-member world body was 123-3, with 52 abstentions. Argentina, Israel and the United States were the three members voting against the resolution. The United Kingdom and members of the European Union were among those that abstained.<\/p>\n In the United States,\u00a0support for reparations<\/a> gained momentum in the wake of the\u00a0murder of George Floyd<\/a> by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. However, the issue has been a difficult one and has been caught up in a broader conservative backlash over how race, history and inequality are handled in public institutions.<\/p>\n Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they are an important reflection of world opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice,” Ghana\u2019s President John Dramani Mahama, a key architect of the resolution, told the assembly before the vote.<\/p>\n \u201cThe adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting,\u201d he said. \u201cLet it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of the millions who suffered the indignity of slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n The United Kingdom\u2019s acting U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki, speaking on behalf of mainly Western nations, said the history of slavery and \u201cits devastating consequences and long-lasting impacts\u201d must never be forgotten.<\/p>\n Western nations are committed to tackling the root causes that persist today, he said, pointing to racial discrimination, racism, xenophobia and intolerance. He said \u201cthe scourge of modern slavery\u201d must also be addressed \u2014 trafficking, forced labor, sexual exploitation and forced criminality.<\/p>\n The resolution \u201cunequivocally condemns the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans, slavery and the transatlantic slave trade as the most inhumane and enduring injustice against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n In approving the resolution, the General Assembly affirms the importance of addressing the historical wrongs of slavery \u201cin a manner that promotes justice, human rights, dignity and healing,.”<\/p>\n The resolution calls on U.N. member nations to engage in talks \u201con reparatory justice, including a full and formal apology, measures of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, guarantees of non-repetition and changes to laws, programs and services to address racism and systemic discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n It encourages voluntary contributions to promote education on the transatlantic slave trade and asks the African Union, the Caribbean Community and the Organization of American States to collaborate with U.N. bodies and other nations \u201con reparatory justice and reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States, Israel and Argentina were the only nations to vote against the resolution. NEW YORK \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-544904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}