this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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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.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 33 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

So it's pretty definitionally oppression Olympics, but I feel like the slave trade is a decent contender. It lasted centuries, maybe more depending a bunch of history that's still up in the air. The Holocaust only went on for a few years.

I'm not sure Ghana has hands as clean as they're implying, though. The victims of the transatlantic slave trade had to (ahem) leave Africa entirely, and usually it wasn't the Europeans catching and selling them on their own.

[–] Tryenjer@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It shouldn't be the average taxpayer in these countries who has to pay for reparations (especially when many were descendants of peasants who were also often exploited in other ways), while the wealthy families who benefited the most evade responsibility, smuggling their blood-earned fortunes to tax havens.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It should, because the collective wealth of most of Europe and the United States is built upon slavery.

Any time people profit from infrastructure and education, which isn't available in the previously enslaved countries, they are benefiting from the fruits of slavery to this day.

[–] Tryenjer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

So nothing would be sent to Rio de Janeiro because the infrastructure there was built through slavery, and the same could be said for Luanda.

I am Portuguese. My grandparents and the majority of the Portuguese population didn't even have basic sanitation or education in the 1970s, despite the fact that our country's elite were among the greatest, if not the biggest, traffickers in the transatlantic slave trade. The electricity grid only reached their neighborhood in the 80s, more than a decade after the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974. Perhaps, our family should receive reparations.

The elite should pay, and the exploited working class must not allow itself to be divided due to petty things like their country of origin. Engaging in any other way is simply falling into yet another "trap" of the universal rent-seeking exploiters, the bourgeoisie. In short, "não se confunda a árvore com a floresta".

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 week ago (3 children)

So it's pretty definitionally oppression Olympics,

That is the reason so many countries abstained from the vote.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 week ago

I'm guessing afraid to contradict the US probably fits in there, too.

[–] compast@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 week ago

No, those countries are satellite states of USA.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No because they would be agreeing to having to pay reparations.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Never going to happen. Who would force them to pay? Who would they pay? Its a conceptual reparation not a practical one.

[–] Corn@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Well maybe ending neocolonial exploitation for starters?

[–] Cypher@aussie.zone 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We don't recognise any non-white responsibility in any form of slavery here

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Slavery has existed in many different cultures, and Africa has had slave trade after it was abolished in Europe and North America, but I think it's fair to say that the transatlantic slave trade was the most cruel and inhuman form of slavery. The only form of slavery that may have been worse was the one Leopold II imposed on Congo.

It's racism that made those forms of slavery even worse. I think racism makes everything worse.

I think the biggest contender for worst crime against humanity was the Native American genocide. That was also driven by racism. So was the Holocaust.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

but I think it’s fair to say that the transatlantic slave trade was the most cruel and inhuman form of slavery.

I can think of other contenders, actually, but Sparta and Russia are both retconned as white (before the concept existed). Maybe something in east Asia, or the Middle East. Any society with a supermajority of slaves is a good candidate to have some of the same rules in place.

I think the biggest contender for worst crime against humanity was the Native American genocide.

I mean, they also did that in Australia, for example, and there's tons of similar events in prehistory we can see through sudden shifts in genetic makeup.

Genocides aren't rare, and since the Americas were a bit more sparsely populated I'm not even sure that's the biggest one.

[–] Cypher@aussie.zone 1 points 1 week ago

I don't see how any of that relates to the white washing of African people's involvement in enslaving and selling other African ethnic groups but go on

[–] compast@lemmy.zip -2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

holocaust is not even top 10 in crimes against humanity if we are doing olympics here

holocaust education has rotted everyones brain

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

If we're doing Olympics probably, yeah. It might be top 20 but there's a whole lot of world and a whole lot of history. The one that happened in Europe is the one European and European-like countries took notice of, though.

It's great that we learn so much about it, and the fact that people just like us did it. Simply burying ugly things is the natural tendency. It's also given us a framework to understand earlier genocides, and genocides in distant modern places, like Israel or Rwanda, as they happen.

[–] compast@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It’s great that we learn so much about it

Sure, but you should keep in mind holocaust education is to justify existence of israel

And europe's crime against third world were much worse

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 week ago

Yeah but many of the victims of the Holocaust were white. Have you considered that?