TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution recognizing the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the "gravest crime against humanity."
123 countries voted in favor of the resolution, which was championed by Ghana and backed by the African Union and Caribbean nations.
The United States, Israel and Argentina were the only countries to vote against Wednesday's non-binding resolution.
The United Kingdom and all 27 members of the European Union were among the 52 countries which abstained.
Ghana said the resolution was needed because the consequences of slavery still persist today, including racial disparities.
What else did Ghana say about the resolution on slavery?
After the vote, Ghana's Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa posted a photo of the results, saying: "We did it for Africa and all people of African descent."
Speaking on behalf of the African Union, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said before the vote: "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."
The transatlantic slave trade between the 15th and 19th centuries involved the kidnapping, enslavement and transport of at least 12.5 million Africans to the Americas and the Caribbean.
Conditions on the journey were so horrific that only 10.7 million survived.
What does the resolution say?
The resolution is entitled "Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity."
It "unequivocally condemns the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans, slavery and the transatlantic slave trade as the most inhumane and enduring injustice against humanity."
It also calls on UN member nations to engage in talks "on reparatory justice, including a full and formal apology, measures of restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, guarantees of non-repetition and changes to laws, programs and services to address racism and systemic discrimination."
Before the vote, Ghana's Foreign Minister Ablakwa said that some nations had refused to acknowledge their crimes.
"The perpetrators of the transatlantic slave trade are known, the Europeans, the United States of America," he told the French AFP news agency. "We expect all of them to formally apologize to Africa and to all people of African descent."
The Netherlands remains the only European country to have issued a formal apology for its role in slavery.
The main European nations involved in slaving were Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.
Ablakwa also suggested that institutions continue to address structural racism and that "compensation" could be offered to those affected.
One pathway toward restorative justice, Ablakwa said, is that "all the looted artifacts are returned to the motherland."
Why were some countries opposed to the resolution on slavery?
Some UN members argued that today's states and institutions should not be held responsible for historical wrongs.
They also voiced concerns that the resolution could imply a hierarchy among crimes against humanity, treating some as more serious than others.
Before the vote, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, Dan Negrea, said the US "does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred."
"The United States also strongly objects to the resolution's attempt to rank crimes against humanity in any type of hierarchy," he added.
The EU representative, Gabriella Michaelidou, said the bloc would have supported a resolution highlighting the "scale of the atrocity" but raised "legal and factual" concerns, including applying international law retroactively.
Speaking at the UN, Ghana's Foreign Minister Ablakwa said, "History does not disappear when ignored, truth does not weaken when delayed, crime does not rot ... and justice does not expire with time."
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