The United Nations General Assembly this week overwhelmingly backed a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade "the gravest crime against humanity". Welcoming the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the wealth of many Western nations was "built on stolen lives and stolen labour". Noting the "barbaric punishments that maintained control - from shackles and iron collars to flogging and sexual violence", he said it "was not simply forced labour". "It was a machinery of