International Day of Remembrance of
Victims of Slavery and
Transatlantic Slave Trade
United Nations General Assembly Declares Transatlantic Slave
Trade Gravest Crime
Against Humanity
Le Marron Inconnu in
Port au Prince, Haiti depicts the rallying cry that sparked
the Haitian Revolution and the abolishment of slavery.
On March 25, International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the United Nations General Assembly passed a historic resolution titled "Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity."[1]
The resolution was spearheaded by Ghana whose president John Dramani Mahama spoke before the vote on behalf of the 54-member African Group and four non-African states: Barbados, Belarus, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Venezuela. The resolution emphasized "the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialized regimes of labour, property and capital." The resolution "affirmed the importance of addressing historical wrongs affecting Africans and people of the diaspora in a manner that promotes justice, human rights, dignity and healing, while emphasizing that claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedy."
The recorded vote was 123 countries in favour to three against (Argentina, Israel and the United States) with 52 abstentions. Besides the African Group, the resolution was strongly supported by the members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Abstentions included Canada. Canada is always cowardly when it comes to taking a principled stand which requires accountability, beginning with the fact that the Monarchy to which it swears allegiance was enriched and sustained by the slave trade. Not surprisingly, the UK and all the members of the EU also abstained. The foundations of all of these countries, along with the U.S., not only profited from the slave trade but their constitutions embedded the structures which permitted it on grounds that peoples captured under ministerial prerogatives as a matter of foreign policy were not free persons of free states. They were property, falling under laws which governed ownership of property which means they could be bought and sold and in no way qualified for treatment as human persons.
The U.S. and the European Union issued statements which they claim explain their votes but which merely prove these countries are racist to the core to this day. Their aims have nothing to do with opposing slavery or the conditions of enslaved persons. On the contrary, to this day in the name of the values they hold dear, they see it as their duty to impose those values on all of humanity, just as they did when they engaged in enslaving people in yesteryear.
In their explanations and justifications for their votes, the U.S. and the EU refuse to acknowledge the significance of the historic crimes against humanity of the Transatlantic slave trade and the responsibilities of their predecessors, and firmly reject any claims for reparations.
The U.S. Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Dan Negrea, stated that the resolution was "highly problematic in countless respects." He said, "We regret that the United States must once again remind this body that the United Nations exists to maintain international peace and security. It was not founded to advance narrow, specific interests and agendas, to establish niche international days, or to create new costly meeting and reporting mandates. This resolution does all three." He repeated the U.S.'s position that it does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred, maligning the framers of the resolution as self-serving, both financially and politically.
Claiming to speak from a position of high ideals and principle, he expressed the U.S.'s strong objection to the characterization of the Transatlantic slave trade as the "gravest crime against humanity." He said, "The assertion that some crimes against humanity are less severe than others objectively diminishes the suffering of countless victims and survivors of other atrocities throughout history. This is not a competition." He included in his statement a boorish claim that "President Trump has done more for Black Americans than any other president and enjoyed historic support from the Black community in the 2024 election."
The European Union statement attempted to justify the collective abstention of member countries in equally deceptive terms. Delivered by Ms. Gabriella Michaelidou, Deputy Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the UN, on behalf of the members and candidate members of the EU, it sought to use what is considered to be more diplomatic language than that used by the U.S. but in essence it was the same. The EU said it objected to the term "gravest [...] when no legal hierarchy between crimes against humanity exists." It raised concerns about the interpretation of historical events in the resolution, and it reiterated its outright rejection of claims for reparations.
No statement at all was forthcoming from Canada. It does not see fit to justify anything or to be held accountable for anything which requires actual reparations or changing course. It is repeating the same sort of treatment of human beings in today's conditions, such as its continued dispossession of the Indigenous Peoples and abuse of their hereditary rights, and the abusive treatment of foreign students, migrant workers, refugees and the most vulnerable. It is all about refusing to recognize that human beings have rights by virtue of being human which governments are duty-bound to guarantee and redress when abused.
The resolution, while not binding, was historic because it affirmed the demands of the nations and peoples of Africa and people of African descent for the member states of the UN to address historical wrongs. Its emphasis on claims for reparations represent a concrete step forward to hold those countries whose fortunes are to this day based on the slave trade and the trafficking of enslaved Africans to account.
The rulers of the UK and the U.S. attribute the abolition of slavery to their own "enlightened" rulers and what they call "abolitionists." A proper assessment of history not written by the ruling classes nonetheless reveals that at the time slavery and the trafficking in enslaved peoples was abolished by Britain, the conditions of the enslaved people were no longer the most suitable for making profits, compared to conditions of wage slavery. Other arrangements used to keep the peoples subjugated suited them better. It was the enslaved peoples who -- together with all those fighting for liberation against the brutal colonial rule of the big powers of Old Europe -- rose up in mighty rebellions against the conditions of their enslavement and gained their freedom. It is a fight they continue to wage under today's conditions.
The slave trade was abolished because of the rebellions of the enslaved peoples themselves and all those who stood on principle as one with them. So too today, it is the working class and peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and workers in England, Scotland and Wales, Ireland, the European countries and Oceania striving for peace, freedom and democracy who will liberate all human beings without exception. They are doing so by bringing their own rule into being on a modern basis.
Underwater statue in Grenada commemorates those lost in the
Transatlantic slave trade.
Note
1. March 25 was officially designated as an annual day of remembrance by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007. It marks the day when, in the U.K., the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in 1807.
(UN News, Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations in New York, United States Mission to the United Nations)
This article was published in
Volume 56
Number 3 - March-April, 2026
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/TML2026/Articles/MS56031.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca