The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights (ELDH) welcomes the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of Resolution A/80/L.48, promoted by Ghana, recognizing the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement as one of the gravest crime against humanity.
ELDH notes that crimes against humanity, as defined under customary international law and reflected in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, encompass widespread and systematic acts against civilian populations. The transatlantic slave trade clearly meets this threshold. Its prohibition has attained the status of a peremptory norm (jus cogens), giving rise to obligations erga omnes.
Such crimes are not subject to statutes of limitation. Their continuing consequences engage State responsibility under international law, including obligations of cessation, guarantees of non-repetition, and full reparation, as codified by the International Law Commission Articles on State Responsibility.
ELDH recalls that European States played a central role in the organization, financing and perpetuation of the transatlantic slave trade, entailing specific legal and moral responsibilities to address its enduring consequences.
While noting with concern the opposition of United States, Argentina and Israel, and the abstention of several States, ELDH emphasizes that the recognition of such crimes reflects established principles of international law and should not be subject to political contestation.
ELDH calls on all States, in particular European States, to give full effect to this resolution and to engage in good faith in advancing truth, justice and reparatory measures.
European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH)
March 2026