Ghana will submit a resolution to the UN designating the African slave trade as "the most serious crime against humanity"
Ghana will submit a resolution to the UN designating the African slave trade as "the most serious crime against humanity"
Diplomatie : Le Ghana va déposer une résolution à l’ONU pour désigner la traite des esclaves africains comme « le plus grave crime contre l’humanité »
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has announced that his country is preparing to submit a resolution to the United Nations to designate the African slave trade as "the most serious crime against humanity ," in conjunction with the countries of the Caribbean Community.
Ghana will submit a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly next March to designate the African slave trade as "the most serious crime against humanity," Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said on Sunday, February 15.
For him, it is "not just about financial compensation, it is about restoring historical truth," he stated at the close of the AU's annual summit in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
"This United Nations resolution is only the first step. We believe that with the consultations we have conducted and the support of the African Union (AU), the truth will finally be recognized: the transatlantic slave trade was the greatest injustice and the greatest crime against humanity ," he said.
John Dramani Mahama clarified that the resolution to be submitted to the United Nations member states is a "declaration on the trafficking of enslaved Africans and the racialized enslavement of Africans, described as the most serious crime against humanity."
This commitment is reminiscent of that of his predecessor as head of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, who had already called in November 2023 for a united front to obtain reparations for transatlantic slavery and damages caused during the colonial era.
The transatlantic slave trade organized the trafficking of millions of people from West and Central Africa. According to UNESCO, this trade uprooted 15 to 20 million Africans who were sequestered and forcibly transported to the Americas and the Caribbean.
The Ghanaian head of state recalled that this is "not just about financial compensation, it is about restoring historical truth (...) But, for now, our objective is to submit the resolution to the Assembly, to let the world recognize that this happened and that there has been no greater injustice against humanity in recent history or in world history than the slave trade. The adoption of this resolution will not erase history, but it will recognize it ," he stressed.