On March 25th two-thirds of the United Nations(U.N.) General Assembly voted to pass resolution A/80/L.48, Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity. (1) The countries from Afrika, the Caribbean, and most of South America and Asia voted in favour of the resolution as did Serbia, Russia and Turkiye. The European world along with Cambodia, Fiji, Japan Oman and Paraguay abstained. Just three nations voted against, Argentina, Israel and the USA. Ten states didn’t vote. (2)
The Resolution states that 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 labor, property and capital.” It also focused on the need to address historic wrongs toward Africans and people of the diaspora, and it placed emphasis on claims for reparations and the “unhindered restitution of cultural properties, objets d’art, monuments, museum pieces, artefacts, manuscripts and documents, and national archives that are of spiritual, historical and cultural or other value to countries of origin without charge.” (3)
In recent years Ghana led the negotiations for the nonbinding Assembly resolution and its president John Dramani Mahama who is also the African Union Champion for Reparations sais “a vote for the resolution is a stand on the right side of history”:
“This resolution allows us as a global community to collectively bear witness to the plight of more than 12.5 million men, women and children whose homes, communities, names, families, hopes, dreams, futures and lives were stolen from them over the course of 400 years. This resolution is a pathway to healing and reparative justice. This resolution is a safeguard against forgetting.” (4)
The USA saw it rather differently. Their spokesperson, Romanian immigrant Dan Negrea, opined:
“The U.S. “does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred… The United States also strongly objects to the resolution’s attempt to rank crimes against humanity in any type of hierarchy. The assertion that some crimes against humanity are less severe than others objectively diminishes the suffering of countless victims and survivors of other atrocities through history.” (5)
UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch felt that abstention was not enough and the government should have voted no like its US/raeli and Argentinian counterparts, relying on the hackneyed ‘Britain ended slavery’ trope. Although unlike the USA she did appear to acknowledge as a crime:
“Russia, China and Iran vote with others to demand trillions in reparations from UK taxpayers…and the Labour government abstain! Britain led the fight to end slavery. Why didn’t Starmer’s representative vote against this? Ignorance…or cowardice? We shouldn’t be paying for a crime we helped eradicate and still fight today.” (6)
Another group chagrined by the U.N. spectacle was the online confederacy known as Foundational Black Americans (FBA). While glossing over the USA’s dismissal of the case, de facto leader Tariq Nasheed directed his ire at John Mahama and Ghana suggesting that Ghana can’t act as a representative for reparations because it was complicit. (7)
The issue of reparations has once again been brought to the fore with the inevitable focus on money. For example the Brattle Group’s 2023 Report on Reparations for Transatlantic Chattel Slavery puts the total amount owed at between $22 trillion and $107 trillion. (8)
But there are many components to reparations including Restitution, Rehabilitation, Satisfaction and Guarantees of Non-Repetition. It provides another opportunity for reparations activists to demystify the manufactured confusion around this issue. There has been decades of work since the Africa Reparations Movement was established in 1993, chaired by the late Bernie Grant MP that includes the Global African Congress, Rastafari Movement UK, Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee and more recently the Afrikan Reparations Day Council among others. All have had to go up against global anti-reparations propaganda in a arduous and complex fight.
Some of the complexities were highlighted the day before the historic U.N. vote where Mahama’s Ghana signed a defence agreement with the European Union purportedly to strenghten cooperation in areas such as counterterrorism and cybersecurity against Islamist militants, in spite of evidence suggesting European backing for these same ‘militants.’ This follows Nigeria’s pursuit of a security pact with the UK again on the premise “to stabilise Sahel.” Commentators have been predicting that the European objective to “destroy the AES Countries” using Afrikan proxies in the region. (9)
(1) United Nations (25/03/26) General Assembly Declares Enslavement of Africans ‘Gravest Crime against Humanity’, Debates Legal Implications. https://press.un.org/en/2026/ga12755.doc.htm
(2) Damilola Banjo (25/03/25) A UN Resolution Urging Reparatory Justice Wins Backing Without Western Support. https://passblue.com/2026/03/25/a-un-resolution-urging-reparatory-justice-wins-backing-without-western-support/
(3) United Nations General Assembly (25/03/26) Eightieth session. Agenda item 119. Commemoration of the abolition of slavery and the .transatlantic slave trade: Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity. https://docs.un.org/en/A/80/L.48.
(4) Banjo. Op. cit.
(5) Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis (27/03/26) How in the hell can the US vote NO about the atrocities of the slave trade? https://jacquilewis.substack.com/p/how-in-the-hell-can-the-us-vote-no
(6) Claire Mom (27/03/26) ‘Ignorance or cowardice?’ — Kemi Badenoch says UK should have voted against UN slavery resolution. https://www.thecable.ng/ignorance-or-cowardice-kemi-badenoch-says-uk-should-have-voted-against-un-slavery-resolution/
(7) Neferkare T. Dessalines (27/03/26) Tariq Nasheed GOES OFF on Ghana Because He’s SCARED of Trump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vduafFppr9A
(8) The Brattle Group (2023) Report on Reparations for Transatlantic Chattel Slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean. https://www.brattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Report-on-Reparations-for-Transatlantic-Chattel-Slavery-in-the-Americas-and-the-Caribbean.pdf
(9) Wedaeli Chibelushi (24/03/26) Ghana and EU sign landmark defence deal to combat militant Islamist threat. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87w80xe1jro; Al Jazeera (08/10/21) Mali accuses France of training ‘terrorists’ in the country. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/8/mali-accuses-france-of-training-terrorists-in-country; Anthony Ailemen (19/03/26) Tinubu at Windsor: Nigeria seeks UK security pact to stabilise Sahel. https://businessday.ng/news/article/tinubu-at-windsor-nigeria-seeks-uk-security-pact-to-stabilise-sahel/; Edzorna Francis Mensah (13/08/25) Understanding the plot to break Ghana and destroy the AES Countries. https://www.blackagendareport.com/understanding-plot-break-ghana-and-destroy-aes-countries; The Subi Shop (29/03/26) This respected president just sold Africa out to the EU. https://open.substack.com/pub/thesubishop/p/this-respected-president-just-sold?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
U.N. Resolution on slavery: What Now?
1) How significant was the resolution?
2) Is there really a “hierarchy” of crimes against humanity?
3) How should the reparations movement respond to the vote?
4) Has Ghana undermined its role with the EU defence deal?
Our Special Guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.
Bro. Dulani Masibuwa Dumisai: is a father of 4 children, a photographer, and a Pan-Afrikanist. He is a founder of Afrikan Development Enterprise, a company that provides photography, graphic design, and printing services to our community. He was a member of the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee for over 10 years. Bro. Dulanai is committed to the continuing struggle for Pan-Afrikan Reparative Justice within the International Social Movement for Afrikan Reparations. He is also the host of the YouTube Podcast, Clear Thinking with Brother Dulani, providing clear and critical analysis of issues facing the Afrikan World. He also hosts Pan-Afrikan Tech Decoded YouTube channel focusing on the development and applications of science and technology in the Afrikan World. Bro. Dulani is a long-time listener and supporter of Galaxyafiwe.net radio station and community.
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