President John Dramani Mahama has urged the global community to confront the full horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and embrace reparative justice as a path toward healing in a compelling appeal to world leaders.
Speaking at the UN High-Level Special Event on Reparatory Justice at the United Nations Headquarters in New York yesterday, President Mahama opened his eight-page address with a striking declaration: “There is no such thing as a slave.”
He explained his statement, saying: “There were human beings who were trafficked and then enslaved by people who believed they could own those human beings as chattel, as their personal property.”
Emphasising the significance of this distinction, he added: “Not if you acknowledge an individual’s humanity; not if you respect an individual’s basic right to dignity.”
President Mahama described the transatlantic slave trade as a system “designed to deny African people their humanity,” built on a racial hierarchy “with no basis in fact or science.”
He concluded with a call to place humanity at the centre of the discussion: “When discussing slavery and its resulting institutions and practices, we must always start by reclaiming racial equality, the dignity of Africans, the humanity of our ancestors who were enslaved and, as a matter of course, our own humanity.”
The UN General Assembly subsequently adopted the slavery reparations motion tabled by President Mahama, with 123 countries voting in favour. The resolution called on the UN to recognise the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade as the gravest crime ever committed against humanity.
After extensive debate, the motion was approved with 123 votes in support, three countries — the United States, Argentina, and Israel — voting against it, and 52 nations abstaining.
See the full list of countries that voted in support of the reparations motion:
