The gravest crime against humanity

By *Jomo Thomas

The United Nations General Assembly adopted an important resolution on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, recognising the transatlantic Slave trade and Slaveryas the ‘gravest crime against humanity’ and calling for reparations. While the World Body did not quantify the claim, it urged UN member states to consider apologising for the slave trade, contributing to a reparations fund and returning historical artefacts stolen from the African continent. Advocates hope that this will pave the way for healing, justice and sustainable development.

The vote represents a major step forward for those seeking reparations for the hideous crimes committed against  Africans and the resulting underdevelopment that continues to plague the African continent and ‘New World’ countries like ours in the Caribbean.  

The resolution, pioneered by Ghana and supported by 123 member states, signals growing support for the cause of reparations. ‘Today, we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice,’ said Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, speaking ahead of the vote on behalf of the 54-member African Group – the largest regional bloc at the UN.

The resolution was opposed by the usual suspects, the USA and Israel. Argentina’s reactionary Milei administration joined the governments in Washington and Tel Aviv. Fifty-two countries abstained, including the United Kingdom and European Union member states.

The resolution was adopted on March 25, 2026, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. With the measure now adopted, Ghana signalled that it would continue pursuing reparatory justice within the framework of the African Union’s Decade of Action on Reparations and African Heritage (2026-2036), while urging member states to remain, in its words, on the right side of history and justice.

To this day, many do not understand the African story and the demands for reparations. The truth is this: For more than 400 years, millions of people were stolen from Africa, put in shackles and shipped to the New World to toil in cotton fields and sugar and coffee plantations under scorching heat and the crack of the whip. 

Denied their basic humanity and even their own names, they were forced to endure generations of exploitation with repercussions that reverberate today, including persistent anti-Black racism and discrimination. 

The resolution emphasised ‘the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialised regimes of labour, property and capital.’ We are constantly reminded of the Jewish halocaust. However, we must remember not to forget that the African halocaust and its recurring legacies predated the atrocities Europeans committed against the Jewish people.

Esther Phillips, Barbados first Poet Laureate, said, ‘There are spirits of the victims of slavery present in this room at this moment, and they are listening for one word only: justice. 

The resolution should please those who have struggled long and hard over the many decades to bring into sharp focus the horrors of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. The resolution is a reminder that all of the areas where chattel slavery was widespread remain a crime scene demanding research, redress, justice and compensation. It was the exploitation of the labour, sweat and sacrifice of Africans that the former enslavers and colonisers built their wealth.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for confronting slavery’s lasting legacies of inequality and racism. ‘Now we must remove the persistent barriers that prevent so many people of African descent from exercising their rights and realising their potential. We must commit fully and without hesitation, to human rights, equality, and the inherent worth of every person,’ he said.

Another pivotal point in the United Nations’ vote is that the African continent is now fully on board with the just demands. This is significant because Ghana’s efforts at the UN offer new impetus for Caricom’s reparations demand, which was issued in June 2013. When Caricom issued its reparations demand, many questioned its importance and utility, while others lampooned the call as hopeless grandstanding. Since then, there has been a revival of the reparations movement in the United States and a rekindling of contacts between diasporan Africans worldwide and the African continent. 

With the UN vote behind us, one can only hope that PM Friday and his team will lend total and complete support to the reparations cause and establish a reparations commission with a budget and office that enable its members to take the cause to all corners of the country and the diaspora. We must never forget that our country played a seminal role in the revitalisation of the reparations cause. Former PM Gonsalves and UWI Vice Chancellor Dr Hilary Beckles were instrumental in convincing regional leaders. They made a convincing case that regional underdevelopment and poverty were a direct result of the slave trade and slavery.

As Dr. Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caribbean Reparations Commission, frequently says, the 21st century will be the age when the just demand will be recognised and honoured. However, we have to be clear-sighted on these issues. The reparations struggle is akin to a marathon rather than a sprint. The least we can do is continue to raise the call for reparations in our lifetime.

*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

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