Ghana, under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama, is today, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, tabling a historic resolution at the United Nations General Assembly, calling for the formal recognition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.
The motion, which coincides with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, seeks to acknowledge the scale, duration, brutality and enduring consequences of the trade that saw millions of Africans forcibly trafficked across the Atlantic over four centuries.
President Mahama, who is leading Ghana’s delegation in New York, has described the initiative as a defining moment in the global push for reparatory justice.
In a powerful address at a high-level special event on reparatory justice held on Tuesday, he stressed that the slave trade was designed to deny Africans their humanity and that its legacies continue to shape inequalities today.
“The entire transatlantic slave trade was designed to deny African people their humanity; there is no such thing as a slave. There were human beings who were trafficked and then enslaved,” President Mahama said.
The resolution, backed by the African Union with support from numerous member states, calls not only for formal recognition of the crime but also opens the door for dialogue on reparations, including formal apologies, the return of looted cultural artefacts, financial compensation and guarantees of non-repetition.
Ghana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Samuel Yao Kumah, has urged member states to support the draft, describing it as a crucial step toward strengthening reparations efforts, particularly for African and Caribbean nations.
The move fulfils a pledge made by President Mahama during last year’s UN General Assembly and positions Ghana, as the AU Champion on Reparations, at the forefront of continental efforts to address historical injustices.
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