That resolution is just virtue signaling. It adds non binding untenable principles like an hierarchy of crimes against humanity and reparation across centuries for something that was not an international recognized crime at the time (while we agree it was terrible).
On the countries that voted yes we have:
- Brazil: the biggest slaver country in the trans-atlantic trade (5 million people vs 400K for the US, just to give you some numbers). It abolished slavery in 1888, the last countries in the americas to do so.
- Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen, all part of the trans-saharan trade that trafficked between 10 and 18 million african (20% to 25% died in transport on the saharan route). All of three very very late in abolishing slavery, in 1962, 1963 and 1962 respectively. The 1926 league of nation (like the UN) slavery convention was created to stop the Hejaz slave trade centers that connected the arab world with multiple slave routes in africa and asia.
- Turkiye was the major player in the crimean and black sea slave trade (up to 2 million slavic slaves). Turkiye abolish slave trade in 1857, and slavery in general in 1924.
- Algeria, Tunisia and Libya (also in the trans-saharan trade): the centers for the barbary slave trade (1 to 1.25 million people), captured from the costal villages of italy, spain and france. They banned slavery very late, 1848, 1846 and 1912 respectively.
I do not want to engage in whataboutism, that is not my point. My point is that this vote is full of hypocrisy. We are not voting for change, we are voting for scoring political points on easy propaganda at home (west bad, we good). While I hate the US, I found that the fact they opposed the resolution and the reason why they opposed the resolution was at least honest. None of the countries above that voted yes will do anything in terms of reparation, and they are not required to.
Finally, I have to correct you on something you said: both in the Roman Republic and Greece (Sparta) was legal to kill your slave without justification.
Sorry, but you totally ignored my points. Did you not understand what I said and why I said it?
Why are you trying to say that the millions of African dead in the Sahara are somewhat to be ignored as slavery in the Arab world was more traditional? You are continuing to dismiss spartan and repubblican Rome slavery as humane when we already established that it was worse in mines and villas (when it was also your right to kill the slave with no need for a workaround?). You are trying to dismiss more than 60 years of free and independent Brazil supporting slavery? Portugal was a kingdom, now is a democracy, why you want to keep today people of Portugal accountable for the actions of kings 20 generation separated by modern Portuguese, but you will not keep accountable descendent from the same people living in Brazil? What is the logic here?
My opinion is that in those 123 nations there are lot of hypocrites that have promoted slavery to the milions of dead in the past but will not pay for the reparation in the preposition nor intend to take responsibility for any wrongdoing of the past. That is my point. Why the double standard? They are just dishonest. If European said “Yes” they would have just lied like all that other nations I cited above lying by saying “Yes”.