Moving Beyond Recognition Toward Repair for Enslavement

Reparations are overdue. International law needs to move beyond legal recognition of the wrongfulness of chattel enslavement and the trade in enslaved people, toward repair and remedy. The March 2026 UN General Assembly resolution represents a notable step in naming, shaming, and moving toward global racial justice, to redress the immensely inequitable material realities defined by chattel enslavement, the trade of enslaved people, and their enduring legacies on African descendants.