Switzerland abstains from voting UN condemns slave trade as the "most serious crime against humanity"

Over several centuries, millions of people were brutally abducted and exploited as slaves far from their homeland. The UN is now making a clear classification. Not all countries are following suit.

Keystone-SDA

26.03.2026, 05:30

26.03.2026, 05:35

SDA

The United Nations has classified the transatlantic slave trade as the "most serious crime against humanity". 123 states voted in the UN General Assembly in favor of a resolution introduced by Ghana.

Israel, the USA and Argentina voted against the text. Switzerland and 51 other countries abstained, according to the voting results published by the UN. The resolution is not legally binding. Among other things, it also calls for the "immediate and unhindered return" of cultural property and art objects to countries of origin free of charge.

According to the text of the resolution, the trade in enslaved people from Africa and their racially motivated enslavement should be considered "the most serious crime against humanity due to the profound rupture in world history, its extent, its duration, its systemic nature, its brutality and its consequences that continue to this day".

Resolution meets with US resistance

US representative Dan Negrea called the resolution highly problematic and said that the League of Nations had not been founded to advance specific interests and agendas and "establish international niche days", as stated on the UN website. The vote falls on Remembrance Day for the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries in particular, several million people were enslaved in Africa and brought to North and South America and the Caribbean. Many did not survive the crossing. The slave trade was banned in Great Britain on March 25, 1807. In the USA, slavery was officially banned in all states in 1865. The UN Convention on Human Rights banned slavery worldwide in 1948.