The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has officially recognised the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and the Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity.
Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, spearheaded the resolution, which was put forward to 193 countries to cast their vote on March 25- a International Day of Remembrance for Victims of Slavery and the transatlantic Slave Trade.
The three countries who opposed the landmark resolution were the United States-one of the major Transatlantic slave trading nations, Argentina- with Buenos Aires being a major hub where thousands of Africans were bought and sold into slavery and Israel.
In addition, 52 countries including the United Kingdom and EU member states abstained.
Welcoming the vote, UN secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the wealth of many Western nations was “built on stolen lives and stolen labour.
“The barbaric punishments that maintained control- from shackles and iron collars to flogging and sexual violence.”
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