The UN General Assembly on Wednesday designated the transatlantic African slave trade as "the gravest crime against humanity," in a move advocates hailed as a step towards healing and possible reparations.
The resolution was adopted to applause by a vote of 123 in favor, three against -- the United States, Israel and Argentina -- and 52 abstentions, including Britain and member states of the European Union.
"The transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity that struck at the core of personhood, broke up families, and devastated communities," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
"To justify the unjustifiable, slavery's proponents and beneficiaries constructed a racist ideology -- turning prejudice into a pseudoscience."
Ghana's President John Mahama, one of the African Union's most vocal supporters of slavery reparations, was at the United Nations headquarters to support the vote.
The resolution went beyond simple acknowledgment, asking nations involved in the slave trade to engage in restorative justice.
"Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice. The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting," said Mahama.
The resolution declared "the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity."
The text also highlighted the legacy of slavery via "the persistence of racial discrimination and neo-colonialism" in today's society.
