US and Israel vote against UN resolution recognising slavery as 'gravest' crime against humanity

The US and Israel were among a handful of countries to vote against a UN resolution condemning slavery as the "gravest" crime against humanity and calling for reparations.

The resolution, brought by Ghana on behalf of African nations, was also greeted with abstentions by the UK, EU member states and Japan.

The draft resolution was adopted by a vote of 123 in favour, with 52 abstentions and three - Argentina, Israel and the US - voting against.

Deputy US ambassador Dan Negrea told reporters before the vote that while his country recognised the wrongness of the slave trade, he said the US "does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred".

He also accused the resolution of seeking to "rank" certain crimes against humanity in a "hierarchy" which he said diminished the suffering of other victims of atrocities throughout history.

The text of the resolution describes "the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity," and that "claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs against Africans and people of African descent."

The transatlantic slave trade saw more than 12 million people transported from Africa over a period of around 400 years, with at least 2.4 million dying en route and millions more dying on arrival as a result of abuse, raids and exploitation.

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While slavery has been officially abolished worldwide - with Mauritania the last country to do so in 1981 - campaigners argue that African nations are still suffering the lasting economic impacts of the trade, as well as the subsequent carving up of the continent by colonial powers.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana's foreign minister, told reporters after the vote that the international community had taken a "significant, considerate and historic step forward by adopting this landmark resolution".

"We have not simply passed a text, we have affirmed a truth. We have chosen remembrance over silence, dignity over erasure and shared humanity over division," he said.

"We have advanced the course of justice and we have done that so emphatically."

US President Donald Trump has been criticised by anti-racism campaigners over comments in which he appeared to minimise the impact of slavery.

In August, he hit out at the Smithsonian Institution, accusing it of focusing too much on “how bad slavery was” rather than presenting a more positive image of American history.

The comments on his TruthSocial site came a week after the White House told the Smithsonian that it would be required to adjust any museum exhibits that it found problematic in “tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals".