In a show of defiance that has turned heads across the globe, the United States aligned with just two countries, Israel and Argentina, to vote against a United Nations resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity.
Introduced by Ghana and backed by 123 nations, the resolution calls for acknowledgment of slavery’s lasting damage and identifies reparatory justice as a step toward addressing centuries of forced labor, displacement, and exploitation.
“Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice,” Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said.
For more than 400 years, millions of Africans were captured, shackled, and transported across the Atlantic, forced into labor on plantations and denied basic humanity and identity. The resolution details how that system’s scale and duration produced consequences that continue to influence global economic and social conditions.
“The slave trade and slavery stand among the gravest violations of human rights in human history – an affront to the very principles enshrined in the Charter of our United Nations,” United Nations General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock told delegates.
Baerbock emphasized the loss of generations across Africa.
“It was, to put it in colder terms, mass resource extraction.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres offered a call to action.
“Now we must remove the persistent barriers that prevent so many people of African descent from exercising their rights and realising their potential,” he declared.
U.S. Rejects Legal Foundation for Reparations
The measure identifies slavery as a defining force in shaping racial inequality and calls on nations to confront those realities through policy, development, and international cooperation.
In opposing the resolution, the United States rejected the legal foundation for reparations tied to slavery.
“The United States does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred,” Ambassador Dan Negrea said in the official explanation of vote.
He also argued that the resolution attempts to rank crimes against humanity and raises concerns about how reparatory justice would be defined and implemented.
The U.S. delegation further stated that the United Nations was not established to pursue what it described as “narrow, specific interests and agendas,” raising objections to mandates associated with the measure.
The vote places renewed attention on domestic actions tied to race, history, and public policy.
Executive orders issued by President Donald Trump direct federal agencies to: dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs; eliminate related offices and positions; terminate equity-focused grants and contracts; and require federal contractors to certify that they do not operate DEI initiatives the administration considers unlawful.
The administration has also taken a series of actions affecting how Black history is represented and supported in federal policy and public spaces.
Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., and its ground mural have been removed, a site that had become a focal point during protests against police violence.
An executive order has targeted the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, drawing attention from historians and advocates concerned about federal intervention involving one of the nation’s leading institutions dedicated to Black history.
Federal websites have been altered to remove references to prominent Black historical figures, changes that have raised questions about how history is being presented across government platforms.
Funding decisions tied to the Department of Education have affected historically Black colleges and universities, including reductions connected to broader rollbacks of diversity and equity initiatives.
At the same time, the administration has elevated figures tied to European colonization.
Shortly after the vote, workers installed a statue of Christopher Columbus near the White House on the grounds of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, replacing a monument that protesters tore down in 2020 following nationwide demonstrations after the killing of George Floyd.
“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he’s honored as such for generations to come,” the administration said. During the United Nations session, Barbados’ Poet Laureate Esther Philips emphasized the importance of considering the resolution.
“There are spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this moment, and they are listening for one word only: justice,” Philips said.
