On March 25, the United Nations’ General Assembly voted to adopt a draft resolution that condemns “the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialized regimes of labor, property and capital.”
The resolution, which also calls for “the prompt and unhindered restitution” of cultural items to their countries of origin without charge, was supported by 123 of the 193 U.N. member countries. Argentina, Israel, and the United States voted against it, while 52 countries, including the United Kingdom and various European Union members, abstained.
During the UN Plenary to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke about the importance of the reparations resolution and what it signals:
“Today, we reflect on a deep betrayal of human dignity—the abduction of millions of Africans, stolen from families and communities they would never see again. Their trafficking across the Atlantic in conditions so cruel that one in seven did not survive the journey, and their enslavement in the Americas, where generations were brutally exploited for their labor and denied their basic humanity.
“These monstrous acts were the core of a global economic and social order, a system born of greed, built on lies, and enforced by violence. A system that prevailed for over 400 years and … that reflected the worst of humanity. That is why today is more than a time of remembrance; it’s a moment to confront the lasting legacies of inequality and racism. We will never forget the victims of slavery, and we must never forget the malevolent system that sustained it for so long.”
The West African nation of Ghana will introduce a historic resolution at the United Nations General Assembly this week, calling for “the trafficking of enslaved Africans and the racialized chattel enslavement of Africans [to be declared] the gravest crime against humanity.”
Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama presented the resolution on March 25, the date the UN has designated as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery. It’s a resolution backed by the 55-member African Union (AU), Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations, Brazil, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Global Group of Experts on Reparations.
Just this past July 2025, the AU announced that it would recognize 2026-2036 as the ‘Decade of Reparations.’ On Feb. 15, President Mahama held a press conference at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to speak about the historical weight behind his being named the “African Union Champion for Reparations.”
“This is not merely a title; it is a solemn obligation to pursue truth, recognition, and justice for our ancestors,” Mahama asserted. He said there were ongoing talks with several high-level committees that were helping strengthen the legal language for the reparations resolution. “The initiative is firmly grounded in international law,” Mahama said during the AU press conference. “Slavery is prohibited under international law as an apparently known jus cogens principle from which no derogation is permitted.
“This resolution builds upon that legal foundation and rests on three pillars: first is historical accuracy; second is legal defensibility; and third, alignment with continental and diaspora alignment to ensure that the text of this resolution reflects rigorous scholarship, moral clarity, and diplomatic credibility,” said Mahama.
CARICOM nations are expected to co-sponsor the resolution. It reportedly calls for the creation of a formal reparations agenda that includes direct financial compensation, debt forgiveness, and policy changes. European and U.S. political groups are leading the opposition to the resolution, arguing that current governments should not be held responsible for past injustices.
Justin Hansford, Howard University law professor and elected member of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, described the significance of Ghana’s initiative in an interview with the Amsterdam News: “We’ve had members of the Permanent Forum participate in helping to support the framing of the resolution and giving feedback … we’re already in support of it. It’s a historic moment.” Hansford emphasized the symbolism of the African Union taking the lead with this resolution, noting, “It’s interesting to see how we can look to the past and then look to the future at the same time and see that we’re actually making progress. It’s funny to think about it that way because, right now, everything in the world seems to be going backwards and becoming more negative.
“But the truth is,” he continued, “I believe that after this period of really global harm and catastrophe, there’s going to be a period of repair that will follow. I’m really glad that Ghana and the African Union are really making sure that when people talk about repair, they mean more than just fixing the present — they’re addressing the roots of the problem. The root of it all is what has been happening over the last 400 years, and efforts are being made to set things right.”
President Mahama’s role in presenting the resolution relates to his writing the foreword for the Ghanaian journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr.’s latest book, “Reparations: History, Struggle, Politics and Law.” Pratt’s book has helped renew interest in the reparatory justice movement in Africa. The book points to the Transatlantic Slave Trade’s theft of between 12 and 15 million Africans who were taken to the Americas and the Caribbean from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Pratt estimates that trillions of dollars are owed for unpaid labor by enslaved Africans, for colonial plunder, and for climate injustices.
The day before he presented the resolution at the United Nations, Mahama’s first stop was at Manhattan’s African Burial Ground, where he laid a wreath to honor enslaved Africans. “We lay down this wreath in remembrance of all the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade — the men, women, and children who were taken from their lives and from those who loved them to be enslaved in a foreign land,” Mahama said, “And also, the people to whom they belonged, the mothers, fathers, grandparents and children whose lives were forever altered after their parents, children, siblings were stolen from them and their communities.”
