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UN PhotoUN / SLAVERY TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
STORY: UN / SLAVERY TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
TRT: 07:04
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 24, 25 MARCH 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
25 MARCH 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
3. Wide shot, GA President Annalena Baerbock at the rostrum
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Annalena Baerbock, President, General Assembly, United Nations:
“The slave trade and slavery stand among the gravest violations of human rights in human history, an affront to the very principles enshrined in the charter of our United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, themselves borne in part from these injustices of the past.”
5. Wide shot, Baerbock at the rostrum
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Annalena Baerbock, President, General Assembly, United Nations:
“While systemic slavery and the slave trade may be confined to the past, its roots of discrimination live on, as do grave violations of human rights. Indeed, in the middle of the last century, the world saw slavery transformed from legally sanctioned to clandestine, with new forms of forced labour, human trafficking and debt bondage. We must therefore be tireless in pursuit of justice, ensuring that we remain active participants in the pursuit of dignity, accountability, and equality across generations.”
7. Med shot, delegates applauding
8. Wide shot, Secretary-General António Guterres at the rostrum
9. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Today is more than a time of remembrance. It's a moment to confront the lasting legacies of inequality and racism. We will never forget the victims of slavery, and you must never forget the malevolent system that sustained it for so long.”
10. Wide shot, Guterres at the rostrum
11. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“This was not simply forced labour. It was a machinery of mass exploitation and deliberate dehumanisation of men, women and children. The wounds run deep and often go unrecognised. I've often said the transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity that struck at the core of personhood, broke up families and devastated communities.”
12. Wide shot, Guterres at the rostrum
13. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I welcome the steps some countries are taking to apologise for their role in the evil of slavery, and to join an honest dialogue about its lasting consequences, but far bolder actions and many more states are needed, and this includes commitments to respect African countries ownership of their own natural resources, and steps to ensure their equal participation and influence in the global financial architecture and the UN Security Council.”
14. Wide shot, delegates applauding
15. Wide shot, the President of Ghana John Mahama at the rostrum
16. SOUNDBITE (English) John Mahama, President, Ghana:
“In September last year, at the 80th session of the General Assembly, I stood in this exact place and served notice that Ghana will move a motion to declare the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. This current draft resolution is a result of months of consultation and consensus building by continental bodies, nations, experts, scholars and jurists, with the sole aim of achieving a united front and grounding the final outcome in truth, compassion and moral conscience, remembrance, education and dialogue.”
17. Wide shot, Mahama at the rostrum
18. SOUNDBITE (English) John Mahama, President, Ghana:
“Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of the millions who suffered the indignity of the slave trade, and those who continue to suffer racial discrimination. Let our vote on this resolution restore their dignity, dignity and humanity.”
19. Wide shot, Mahama at the rostrum
20. Various shots, delegates applauding
21. Wide shot, GA
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Dan Negrea, Deputy Representative, Representative on the Economic and Social Council, United States:
“In addition to its obvious legal problems, this resolution is also unclear as to who the recipients of reparatory justice would be. The draughters and supporters of this resolution seem to believe it is them. The United States strongly objects to the cynical usage of historical wrongs as a leverage point in an attempt to reallocate modern resources to people and nations who are distantly related to the historical victims.”
23. Various shots, voting board
24. Wide shot, GA
25. Wide shot, Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa walks up to podium
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
26. Close up, reporter’s notepad
25 MARCH 2026, NEW YORK CITY
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ghana:
“This is an emphatic victory for justice, and our ancestors, Africans are all people of African descent are today honoured that our humanity and our dignity have been restored.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
27. Close up, reporter’s notepad
25 MARCH 2026, NEW YORK CITY
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ghana:
“We acknowledge that views differed during this process, and we note the positions taken by delegations that were not in a position to support the resolution at this time. The adoption of this text is not an arrival at a destination, but rather a major step in our ongoing journey and collective conversation for reparatory justice.”
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
29. Close up, reporter’s notepad
25 MARCH 2026, NEW YORK CITY
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ghana:
“History, as we know, is rarely simple. It is layered, it is complex and at times uncomfortable. This resolution does not deny that complexity. It does not ignore the many dimensions of historical experience. Rather, it recognises that even within complexity, there are moments in history that stand apart, moments defined by their scale, their systematisation, and their impact on humanity.”
24 MARCH 2026, NEW YORK CITY
31. Various shots, The Ark of Return slavery memorial sculpture
32. Various shots, Transatlantic Slave Trade exhibit at UNHQ lobby
The General Assembly today (25 Mar) adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. The resolution spearheaded by Ghana received 123 votes in favour. Three countries – Argentina, Israel and the United States – voted against and 52 abstained.
Marking the commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and Transatlantic Slave Trade, GA President Annalena Baerbock said, “the slave trade and slavery stand among the gravest violations of human rights in human history, an affront to the very principles enshrined in the charter of our United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, themselves borne in part from these injustices of the past.”
Baerbock told the General Assembly that while systemic slavery and the slave trade “may be confined to the past, its roots of discrimination live on, as do grave violations of human rights,” and stressed that “we must therefore be tireless in pursuit of justice, ensuring that we remain active participants in the pursuit of dignity, accountability, and equality across generations.”
Secretary-General António Guterres for his part said “today is more than a time of remembrance. It's a moment to confront the lasting legacies of inequality and racism. We will never forget the victims of slavery, and you must never forget the malevolent system that sustained it for so long.”
Guterres said, “this was not simply forced labour. It was a machinery of mass exploitation and deliberate dehumanisation of men, women and children.”
He said, “the transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity that struck at the core of personhood, broke up families and devastated communities.”
The Secretary-General welcomed “steps some countries are taking to apologise for their role in the evil of slavery, and to join an honest dialogue about its lasting consequences, but far bolder actions and many more states are needed, and this includes commitments to respect African countries ownership of their own natural resources, and steps to ensure their equal participation and influence in the global financial architecture and the UN Security Council.”
The President of Ghana, John Mahama, the draft resolution was “a result of months of consultation and consensus building by continental bodies, nations, experts, scholars and jurists, with the sole aim of achieving a united front and grounding the final outcome in truth, compassion and moral conscience, remembrance, education and dialogue.”
Mahama said, “let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of the millions who suffered the indignity of the slave trade, and those who continue to suffer racial discrimination. Let our vote on this resolution restore their dignity, dignity and humanity.”
Prior to the vote Ambassador Dan Negrea of the United States said, “in addition to its obvious legal problems, this resolution is also unclear as to who the recipients of reparatory justice would be. The draughters and supporters of this resolution seem to believe it is them.”
Negrea said, “the United States strongly objects to the cynical usage of historical wrongs as a leverage point in an attempt to reallocate modern resources to people and nations who are distantly related to the historical victims.”
After the vote, Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said this was “an emphatic victory for justice, and our ancestors, Africans are all people of African descent are today honoured that our humanity and our dignity have been restored.”
Ablakwa acknowledged that “views differed during this process,” and said, “the adoption of this text is not an arrival at a destination, but rather a major step in our ongoing journey and collective conversation for reparatory justice.”
He said the resolution “does not ignore the many dimensions of historical experience. Rather, it recognises that even within complexity, there are moments in history that stand apart, moments defined by their scale, their systematisation, and their impact on humanity.”
For more than 400 years, millions of people were stolen from Africa and shipped to the New World to toil in cotton fields and sugar and coffee plantations. 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 racialized regimes of labour, property and capital.”
It affirmed the importance of addressing historical wrongs affecting Africans and people of the diaspora in a manner that promotes justice, human rights, dignity and healing, while emphasising that claims for reparations represent a concrete step towards remedy.
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