Don't look at who voted to call the slave trade the gravest crime', look at who didn't | Kenneth Mohammed

"The Ghana-led resolution declared that the trafficking and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans was the gravest crime against humanity and urged steps including formal apologies, reparatory justice and the return of looted cultural property."

"Much of Africa, the Caribbean and the global south treated the resolution as a simple moral proposition: the truth about one of history's greatest engines of human theft, racial capitalism and underdevelopment."

"The insistence that calling slavery the gravest crime somehow dishonours other human suffering reveals a reluctance to confront historical accountability and the ongoing consequences of colonialism."

The UN General Assembly adopted a Ghana-led resolution declaring the trafficking and enslavement of Africans as a grave crime against humanity. It received 123 votes in favor, with three against and 52 abstentions. The US, Israel, and Argentina voted no, while the UK and EU abstained. Many nations from Africa and the global south viewed the resolution as a moral imperative, while Western nations perceived acknowledgment as a threat to their comfort. The resolution aimed to establish the historical significance of slavery and its ongoing impact, despite objections from former slave-trading powers.

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