The most serious crime against humanity

With 123 votes in favour, last March the United Nations General Assembly approved a historic resolution that, for the first time, defines the trafficking of enslaved Africans as “the most serious crime against humanity.” A political victory for African countries supported by the Global South bloc, and above all a great victory for History.

Only three countries opposed it: Argentina, Israel and the United States – which had voted against the resolution of the General Assembly in November concerning torture – while 52 countries abstained, including the United Kingdom and all the member states of the European Union. In practice, this was the colonialist West that widely practised slavery for four centuries, enslaving and trafficking more than 15 million Africans across the Atlantic. Of these, 10.7 million survived the journey. Five million died from deprivation, disease and torture. The text, promoted by Ghana and supported by the African bloc – the largest within the UN – represents, according to its sponsors, a necessary step towards addressing the consequences of slavery that are still felt today, from racial inequalities to systemic racism.

“Today we gather in solemn solidarity to affirm the truth and embark on a path towards restorative justice”, declared Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, speaking before the vote on behalf of the 54 countries of the African continent. Historians have linked the wealth generated by slavery to mass industrialisation in the West. Free labour constituted the initial capital accumulation, to put it bluntly, that enabled European and American capitalism to make the investments needed to purchase the land and machinery of nineteenth-century factories. Yet, despite the document’s call to begin negotiations on forms of reparations such as official apologies, compensation and legislative reforms to combat racism – which has never disappeared, but rather has intensified – for now the resolution will have no legally binding force, but only an undeniable and powerful moral value.

The signal coming from the UN is nevertheless politically unequivocal at a time like this, when human and civil rights are regarded as cumbersome and useless accessories, while memory has lost its value in the age of social media. This is a concrete step towards remedying historical injustices and a call to confront decisively the fight against human trafficking and trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation. The countries of the old continent have acknowledged the gravity of historical slavery and its consequences, but made no explicit commitments. It is better, instead, to limit themselves to a generic reference to the current importance of fighting contemporary slavery, despite today’s politics being marked by European governments’ agreements with North African regimes whose militias are often linked to traffickers or are themselves involved in the enslavement of imprisoned migrants who are sold as slaves. This happens in Libya, just a few kilometres from the Italian and therefore European shores. It happens in Turkey. The attitude of the United States under Donald Trump, supported by white supremacists, is no longer surprising. A year ago, he shut down American cooperation through USAID, harming above all women, children and elderly people suffering from illness in refugee camps. Today, together with the Israeli and Argentine governments, he refuses to recognise slavery as the most serious crime against human beings. And he votes against the very history of the United States, marked by the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy precisely over the abolition of slavery.

Paolo Lambruschi
NP April 2026