Ghana Seeks UN Support for Slavery Resolution to Strengthen Reparations Push

Ghana is seeking broader international backing for reparations efforts with an appeal to United Nations member states to support a draft resolution recognizing the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity.”

The appeal was made on Monday by Ghana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Samuel Yao Kumah, during an African Group press conference ahead of a planned address by President John Dramani Mahama at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

Kumah said the resolution is primarily intended to support reparations initiatives being advanced by Caribbean nations.

He stressed that the proposal is not meant to rank suffering or diminish other historical tragedies, but rather to acknowledge what he described as a historic turning point that reshaped global systems and continues to drive inequalities today.

According to Kumah, the resolution recognizes the trafficking and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as a historical rupture that helped establish the modern racialized global order.

He emphasized that resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly are declaratory political instruments rather than judicial rulings, meaning they do not create legally binding classifications of crimes. Instead, the proposed measure would serve as political and historical recognition.

While the draft does not outline specific reparations, Kumah said Ghana and its partners hope it will help lay the groundwork for broader reparative initiatives.

He also noted that legal frameworks were historically used to justify the enslavement of Africans and enforce racial segregation for centuries, warning that attempts to recognize historical truth are often challenged through legal technicalities that risk obscuring that reality.

“The law must never again serve as a shield to avoid truth,” Kumah said.

President Mahama is scheduled to present the resolution to the UN General Assembly on March 25, coinciding with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.