The landmark resolution calls for an apology and contributions to a reparations fund, without specifying an amount.

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognise the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, a move advocates hope will pave the way for healing and justice.

The resolution - proposed by Ghana - called for this designation, while also urging UN member states to consider apologising for the slave trade and contributing to a reparations fund. It does not mention a specific amount of money.

The proposal was adopted with 123 votes in favour and three against - the United States, Israel and Argentina.

Countries like the UK have long rejected calls to pay reparations, saying today’s institutions cannot be held responsible for past wrongs.

  • encelado748@feddit.orgEnglish
    1·
    11 hours ago

    That resolution is just virtue signaling. It adds non binding untenable principles like an hierarchy of crimes against humanity and reparation across centuries for something that was not an international recognized crime at the time (while we agree it was terrible).

    On the countries that voted yes we have:

    • Brazil: the biggest slaver country in the trans-atlantic trade (5 million people vs 400K for the US, just to give you some numbers). It abolished slavery in 1888, the last countries in the americas to do so.
    • Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen, all part of the trans-saharan trade that trafficked between 10 and 18 million african (20% to 25% died in transport on the saharan route). All of three very very late in abolishing slavery, in 1962, 1963 and 1962 respectively. The 1926 league of nation (like the UN) slavery convention was created to stop the Hejaz slave trade centers that connected the arab world with multiple slave routes in africa and asia.
    • Turkiye was the major player in the crimean and black sea slave trade (up to 2 million slavic slaves). Turkiye abolish slave trade in 1857, and slavery in general in 1924.
    • Algeria, Tunisia and Libya (also in the trans-saharan trade): the centers for the barbary slave trade (1 to 1.25 million people), captured from the costal villages of italy, spain and france. They banned slavery very late, 1848, 1846 and 1912 respectively.

    I do not want to engage in whataboutism, that is not my point. My point is that this vote is full of hypocrisy. We are not voting for change, we are voting for scoring political points on easy propaganda at home (west bad, we good). While I hate the US, I found that the fact they opposed the resolution and the reason why they opposed the resolution was at least honest. None of the countries above that voted yes will do anything in terms of reparation, and they are not required to.

    Finally, I have to correct you on something you said: both in the Roman Republic and Greece (Sparta) was legal to kill your slave without justification.

    • shawn1122@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      7 hours ago

      It was legal to kill your slave in America also as long as it was “by accident” and this was justified with biblical passage.

      Freeing slaves was much more common in ancient Rome than it was in the transatlantic trade or ancient Greece.

      Freed slaves could also qualify for citizenship in ancient Rome while for a century in the US they were either nonpersons or infamously 3/5ths of a “real” person.

      As for those that perpetuated slavery in Brazil, it’s well established that Portugese settlers upheld the institution. How did Portugal vote? I wonder why. Now that Brazil is a democracy and those that were subjected to that cruelty have a voice - well that explains why they voted yes, doesn’t it?

      I won’t contest any of the dates you’ve brought forward. But I will reiterate that slavery in the Middle East was closer to how slavery was practiced historically. European colonial powers turned slavery into something uniquely and monstrously inhumane so it’s understandable why these nations would prefer to hide from that truth. They created a global race based caste system to justify it, which has been a stain on human morality since then. At least there’s hope in the fact that the majority of the world sees it for what it truly was.

      123 nations representative of 75% of the global population agreed with this proposition. It’s convenient to say they all did it to score political points and make a statement. But when representatives of 6.35 billion people say this was uniquely bad (considering all the horrific things that happened in their countries due to colonialism and other tyranical regimes), it may be time to stop and self reflect (for the countries that voted no or abstained).

      • encelado748@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        6 hours ago

        Sorry, but you totally ignored my points. Did you not understand what I said and why I said it?

        Why are you trying to say that the millions of African dead in the Sahara are somewhat to be ignored as slavery in the Arab world was more traditional? You are continuing to dismiss spartan and repubblican Rome slavery as humane when we already established that it was worse in mines and villas (when it was also your right to kill the slave with no need for a workaround?). You are trying to dismiss more than 60 years of free and independent Brazil supporting slavery? Portugal was a kingdom, now is a democracy, why you want to keep today people of Portugal accountable for the actions of kings 20 generation separated by modern Portuguese, but you will not keep accountable descendent from the same people living in Brazil? What is the logic here?

        My opinion is that in those 123 nations there are lot of hypocrites that have promoted slavery to the milions of dead in the past but will not pay for the reparation in the preposition nor intend to take responsibility for any wrongdoing of the past. That is my point. Why the double standard? They are just dishonest. If European said “Yes” they would have just lied like all that other nations I cited above lying by saying “Yes”.