A resolution proposed by\u00a0Ghana\u00a0at the\u00a0United Nations\u00a0on Wednesday to recognise transatlantic \u200bslavery as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations has been adopted despite resistance from\u00a0Europe\u00a0and the\u00a0U.S.<\/p>\n
Ghana said the\u00a0resolution\u00a0\u200cwas needed because the consequences of slavery, which saw at least 12.5 million Africans taken and sold between the 15th and 19th centuries, persist today, including racial disparities.<\/p>\n
At a U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) vote, 123 countries supported the resolution, which is not legally binding but carries political weight, while three opposed it, including the U.S. and Israel, \u200band 52 abstained, including the European Union and Britain.<\/p>\n
Ghana’s foreign minister, Samuel Ablakwa, said the resolution called for accountability.<\/p>\n
Justin Hansford, a \u200blaw professor at Howard University, said the resolution was significant as it represented the furthest the U.N. has \u2060gone in recognising transatlantic slavery as a crime against humanity and in calling for reparations.<\/p>\n
“This marks the first vote on the floor of the \u200bU.N.,” Hansford said. “I cannot overemphasise how large of a step that is.”<\/p>\n
RESOLUTION CALLS FOR APOLOGIES, COMPENSATION<\/strong><\/p>\n U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the UNGA that “far \u200bbolder action” was required from more states to confront historical injustices. The Netherlands\u00a0remains the only European country\u00a0to have issued a formal apology for its role in slavery.<\/p>\n The resolution marks a new step in\u00a0Africa’s\u00a0efforts to seek accountability for historical injustices by former colonial powers after the African Union\u00a0last year set out\u00a0to create a “unified \u200bvision” among its 55 member states on what reparations may look like.<\/p>\n It urges member states to engage in dialogue on reparations, including issuing formal \u200bapologies, returning stolen artefacts, providing financial compensation, and ensuring guarantees of non-repetition.<\/p>\n While longstanding calls for reparations have\u00a0gained momentum\u00a0in recent years, there is also a\u00a0growing backlash.<\/p>\n Several Western \u200cleaders have\u00a0opposed \u2060even discussing\u00a0the subject, with critics arguing today’s states and institutions should not be held responsible for historical wrongs.<\/p>\n EU RAISES ‘LEGAL AND FACTUAL’ CONCERNS<\/p>\n Both the EU and the U.S. voiced concerns the resolution could imply a hierarchy among crimes against humanity, treating some as more serious than others.<\/p>\n Historian Babatunde Mesewaku, speaking in Badagry, a coastal town in Nigeria that served as a major slavery port, said that, in his view, it was the gravest \u200bcrime against humanity, given its length \u200bof over 500 years, the \u2060tens of millions who were taken – along with those who died in the Middle Passage – resulting in the destruction and stagnation in Africa and beyond.<\/p>\n U.S. representative Dan Negrea said his country objected to the “cynical usage of \u200bhistorical wrongs as a leverage point … to reallocate modern resources to people and nations who are distantly related \u200bto the historical \u2060victims.”<\/p>\n The EU representative, Gabriella Michaelidou, said the bloc would have supported a resolution highlighting the “scale of the atrocity” but raised “legal and factual” concerns, including applying international law retroactively.<\/p>\n Ghana has also faced criticism for advocating justice for past wrongs on the world stage while simultaneously pushing for\u00a0stricter anti-LGBT laws at home.<\/p>\n African and \u2060Caribbean nations \u200bhave been\u00a0seeking to establish\u00a0a special U.N. reparations tribunal, and Ablakwa said the resolution \u200bcould pave the way for a “reparative framework.”<\/p>\n “History does not disappear when ignored, truth does not weaken when delayed, crime does not rot… and justice does not expire with time,” Ablakwa \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A resolution proposed by\u00a0Ghana\u00a0at the\u00a0United Nations\u00a0on Wednesday to recognise transatlantic \u200bslavery as the “gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations has been adopted despite resistance from\u00a0Europe\u00a0and the\u00a0U.S. Ghana said the\u00a0resolution\u00a0\u200cwas needed because the consequences of slavery, which saw at least 12.5 million Africans taken and sold between the 15th and 19th centuries, persist today, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":15,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,34,27],"tags":[1463,158,4971],"class_list":["post-20275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-society","category-west-africa","tag-antonio-guterres","tag-ghana","tag-slavery-resolution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20277,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20275\/revisions\/20277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}