The resolution, led by Ghana, was approved with 123 votes in favour, 52 abstentions, and three votes against from the United States, Israel, and Argentina.
The resolution urges Member States to consider formal apologies and to contribute to a reparations fund, although it does not specify a monetary value. It also calls for the return of cultural artefacts taken during the colonial period to their countries of origin.
Speaking on behalf of the African Group, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said, “Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice.” He described the resolution as a “safeguard against forgetting” and a response to what he called the “erasure of Black history” by some modern political administrations.
The resolution states that for more than 400 years, millions of Africans were “stolen, shackled, and shipped” under harsh conditions. It describes the trade as a “definitive break in world history” with long-term effects on global labour and economic systems. Estimates indicate that between 12 and 15 million people were captured between 1500 and 1800, with over two million dying during the transatlantic journey.
President of the General Assembly Annalena Baerbock said the trade was a form of “mass resource extraction” that weakened African societies. She added, “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.”
The resolution faced opposition from the United States. Ambassador Dan Negrea described the text as “highly problematic in countless respects” and said the UN should focus on international security rather than “niche” issues. He stated that the U.S. “does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred”.
Several countries, including the United Kingdom and some European Union members, abstained from the vote. The UK has maintained that present-day institutions should not be held responsible for actions taken in the past.
Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said reparations efforts are not limited to financial payments. He explained that African leaders are seeking support for education and skills development, stating, “Many generations continue to suffer the exclusion, the racism because of the transatlantic slave trade, which has left millions separated from the continent and impoverished.”
Esther Philips, First Poet Laureate of Barbados, addressed delegates during the session. She said, “There are spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this moment, and they are listening for one word only: justice.” She added, “For them and for the world, there can be no peace without justice – reparatory justice – and that call is answered only when words are turned into action”.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on countries to take stronger steps to address the long-term effects of slavery. He urged “far bolder actions”, including recognising African ownership of natural resources and ensuring equal representation in global financial and security institutions.