AU calls UN slave trade vote step towards 'healing'

A general view of details on a wall at the Zomachi memorial in Ouidah on August 4, 2020. [Yanick Folly, AFP]

The African Union Thursday, welcomed as "historic" a UN vote to designate the transatlantic African slave trade as "the gravest crime against humanity" and said it marked an important step towards "healing".

The resolution was adopted at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday in a vote backed by 123 countries, with three voting against and 52 abstentions.

The United States was among those to oppose the measure, while Britain and EU member states abstained.

Despite being non-binding, the resolution goes beyond simple acknowledgement and asks nations involved in the slave trade to engage in restorative justice.

"This historic decision marks an important step toward truth, justice, and healing, and reinforces the urgent need to address the enduring legacy of slavery," the AU's head Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said in a statement published on X.

The pan-African body is committed to working with the UN, member states and partners "to advance historical justice and ensure that such crimes are neither forgotten nor repeated", it said.