The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/80/250 on March 26, 2026, formally recognizing the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement as the gravest crimes against humanity, marking a historic milestone in the international community's acknowledgment of this historical injustice. This resolution, championed by Ghana and supported by 123 member states, establishes a foundation for truth-telling, education, memorialization, and reparatory justice. The conference in Accra, Ghana, convened to discuss next steps, including the establishment of global advisory panels on reparatory justice, cultural artifact restitution, and legal frameworks, with the African Union designating 2026-2035 as the Decade of Reparations. The resolution emphasizes that reparatory justice is not merely about acknowledging the past but about expanding opportunity, advancing human development, and creating a more just future for communities affected by the enduring consequences of this historical injustice.
NANDI-NDAITWAH AT UN SLAVERY CONFERENCE IN GHANA -18 JUNE 2026
Added:The courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve, to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. There we ask for more in life. Your excellencies, this conference will deepen our shared understanding, strengthen our collective resolve, and deliver meaningful outcomes that advance justice, dignity, and equity for Africans. As we build and construct a new world without discrimination, without racism, and without inequalities, may future generations look back on this conference in Ara as a defining moment when the international community came together not merely to remember history, but to shape a more just future. Once again, welcome to Ghana and to the high level next steps conference on reparatory justice. I thank you for your attention. and excellencies.
>> Thank you very much honorable minister of foreign affairs.
Honorable Samuel Okucho Ablapa, thank you so much for your welcome remarks.
Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, we will now proceed to have highlevel remarks by very important dignitaries in our midst this morning.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now receive remarks from Miss Lydia Arthur Brito, Assistant General Director of UNESCO. Please welcome her to the stage.
ladies and gentlemen, Miss Lydia Arabrito, Assistant General Director of UNESCO, His Excellency John Dami Hammer, President of the Republic of Ghana Excellencies, heads of state and of government, dear presidents, honorable ministers, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, I'm honored to deliver these remarks on behalf of Professor Khaled El Anani, Director General of UNESCO, who is unfortunately unable to join us in Agra today. Allow me to express my sincere gratitude to his excellency President Bahama and to his government for the leadership in advancing this important agenda and for convening and hosting this high level consultative conference on the next steps to the landmark United Nations resolution on the trafficking of enslaved Africans. The history of ensavement, the slave trade and their enduring legacies.
>> The history of enslavement, the slave trade and their enduring legacies are not merely matters of the past. They continue to shape societies across the world and compel us to reflect on how historical anjustice can be acknowledged and addressed in the presence. in the present. For more than 88 decades, UNESCO has worked with member states to deepen understanding of this history and its consequences. Since the founding in 1945, the organization has supported efforts to document, study, and transmit knowledge about slavery and enslavement, recognizing the historical truth is an essential foundation for justice, dignity, and reconciliation.
A major milestone on this work was the launch of the general history of Africa program in 1964.
Through this initiative, UNESCO has supported Africa in reclaiming and writing its own history, correcting longstanding distortions and prejudice.
Today, UNESCO continues to assist member states in integrating the general history of Africa into education systems in Africa and beyond to enable learners to engage critically with histories of enslavement and their legacies.
Recognizing education as an incessional foundation for dignity, inclusion and lasting peace. Another important initiative is UNESCO's slave root project launched in 1994 in Oida Ben now known as the roots of s enslaved people program established to break the silence surrounding the history of enslavement and its legacies.
The program has become UNESCO's principal framework for advancing research, education, memory, and international cooperation in this field.
And these are all key areas fundamental for the discussion of the resolution and a action beyond. UNESCO also works with member states to preserve and transmit the memory of this history through the network of places of history and memory linked to the enslavement and the slave trade as well as the memory of the world program. UNESCO supports the safeguarding of sites, archives and documentary heritage that bear witness to this shared past. Here in Ghana, the fort and castals inscribed on the UNESCO heritage list are very much part of this network and they stand as powerful testimonies to one of the darkest chapters in human history and as places of reflection for present and future generations. I want to thank Ghana for the incredible support to this program of UNESCO. Uh as we have seen uh in the in the documentary and the the artistic performance dialogue is another yet key aspect of the resolution. In alignment with this, UNESCO has longstanding mandate to facilitate international cooperation in the fields of culture and heritage through its normative instruments and intergovernmental mechanisms. UNESCO supports member states in promoting the return and restitution of cultural property to countries and communities of origin.
UNESCO has also support is also been supporting reflection on the reparatory justice through the UNESCO dialogues on reparatory justice launched in 2024.
These dialogues bring together descendants descendant communities policy makers researchers culture institutions and civil society actors to exchange experience and identify pathways for future action.
Excellencies, the resolution calls for remembrance, education, and good faith dialogue on reparatory justice. These priorities reflect the very the very areas in which UNESCO has worked for decades alongside its member states. By advancing knowledge, preserving memory, and fostering dialogue and cooperation, UNESCO remains committed to supporting collective efforts to address the enduring legacy.
enlavement and to promote a future found on human dignity, mutual understanding and justice. This work is not the end but only the beginning. UNESCO stand ready to continue working with all of you, all the partners in the spirit of solidarity and mutual respect, accompanying member states in advancing this important agenda and in building a more inclusive, equitable and inclusive societies. I thank you all once again. Madame Deisu, thank you very much. Miss Lydia Arthur Breto, assistant general of UNESCO. Thank you for your insightful remarks.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now hear from Miss Christian Tabu Tubira, former Minister of Justice of the French Republic.
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I left you time to put your and uh I feel very emotional speaking here at this time at this moment on this issue.
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>> Ladies and gentlemen, one more time for Miss Christian Toira, former minister of justice of the French Republic.
Now she was the attorney general in France for over 25 years. Now that gives us reason as to why she's so passionate about her remarks. One more time please for madame.
We will now hear from our very own her excellency Amachum Ammoa who is the commissioner of health and humanitarian affairs and social development of the African Union.
Thank you very much Michelle.
The Excellency President John Ramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana and the African Union Champion on advancing the cause of justice and payment of reparations, excellencies, heads of state and government, former presidents and prime ministers, honorable members of parliament, honorable ministers, Traditional leaders, distinguished representatives of regional and international organizations, esteemed representatives of civil society, academia and communities of the African diaspora, brothers and sisters of the press.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a great honor to join you at this high level coordination conference here in Ara, a city of memory, a city of return and today a city of renewed resolve.
On behalf of his excellency Mahmud Ali Ysef, chairperson of the African Union Commission, I wish to express our profound appreciation to your excellency President Mahama and to the people, the government of of Ghana for convening this timely important gathering. This conference represents a defining moment in our collective journey. A journey from recognition to responsibility, from remembrance to redress, and from historical truth to meaningful repair.
Your Excellencies, this conference takes place at a significant moment in Africa's institutional and political engagement on justice and reparations.
Through assembly decision 884, the African Union designated 2025 theme of the year as justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations. This historic decision elevated reparative justice from a longstanding moral demand into a structured continental program of action anchored in agenda 2063.
More recently, Assembly Decision 942 adopted in February 2026 extended this commitment by designating 2026 to 2035 as the decade of reparations, further demonstrating Africa's determination to pursue a paraly justice with consistency, with unity, and with institutional purpose. These decisions are important not only because of what they declare but because of what they signify.
They signify that the African Union does not regard reparative justice as a single issue campaign or a matter confined to one chapter of history. The union's approach encompasses the interconnected crimes of the trafficking and enslavement of Africans, colonialism and apathide as well as their enduring consequences in political marginalization, economic extraction, cultural disposition, racial discrimination and structural inequality. In this sense, a priority justice is not only about accounting for the past. It is about transforming the systems and structures that the past created and which continue to shape our present. The implementation of the 2025 theme of the year marked the beginning of a new and coherent phase of continental action. one that moved Africa from the moral clarity of institutional design and from advocacy to implementation.
At the center of this effort was the establishment of a robust continental architecture the African Union coordination team of rep on reparations coordinated by the citizens and diaspora direates. It brings together departments, organs, specialized institutions and leison offices across the union in implementation of assembly division 884. The following and following the approval of the relevant terms of reference by the executive council. The commission also facilitated the establishment of the African Union committee of experts on reparation and the African Union reference group of legal experts on reparations. Both mechanisms comprise distinguished experts nominated by member states and African Union organs. The inaugural meeting held at the African Union Commission in Adis Sababa in December 2025 represented an important turning point. The two bodies constituteed their bureau, adopted agreed conclusions and established special working groups.
These working groups cover global governance and structural reparations, economic and environmental reparations, cultural, scientific and education, educational reparations and advocacy, communication and knowledge production.
Dedicated legal work streams were also established to examine relevant sources of international law from an aphosentric perspective. the legal characterization of historical crimes, comparative models and modalities of reparations and appropriate legal mobilization strategies. In February 2026, Ghana hosted the first joint meeting of the Bureau of the Mechanisms here in Ara, strengthening coordination and intellectual exchange between them. Mr. President, we remain deeply appreciative that you graciously received the experts and assure and shared your guidance on the important work before them. This institutional architecture matters because historic demands require durable instruments. If our cause is continental, our response must be coordinated. If our argument is legal, our preparation must be rigorous. And if our ambition is global, our institutions must be equal to that ambition. The African Union has therefore sought to build not only a compelling narrative but also a practical framework capable of delivering concrete and measurable results. Excellencies, one of the most important contributions of the African Union over the past year has been a reframe of paretary justice not only as historical redress but also as a forward-looking agenda for development sovereignty, political agency and continental renewal. This is why assembly decision decision 884 looked beyond remembrance towards structural transformation.
A priority justice must be explicitly aligned with agenda 2063, including its aspirations for justice and the rule of law, cultural identity and historical consciousness, inclusive development and Africa's emergence as a confident and influential global actor and norm shaper. This is also why guarantees of nonrepetition must be understood in structural terms. We cannot credibly say never again while preserving a global system founded upon inequity, exclusion and inherited hierarchies of power. The assurance that historical injustice will not be reproduced in new forms depends in part upon reforming the structures of global governance so that Africa assumes its rightful place in international decision making, rule making and resource allocation. This includes reform of the United Nations Security Council in accordance with the common African position as reflected in the ESONI consensus and the said declaration. It also includes meaningful reform of international financial institutions so that they better reflect the principles of equity and representation and respond more effectively to the development priorities of Africa and other communities historically subjected to injustice and exploitation. Assembly decision 884 recognize this broader horizon by positioning reparatory justice and not merely as a commemorative exercise.
The same imperative applies to Africa's continental initiative the and global partnerships. The operationalization of the AU cariccom memorandum of understanding on upscaling engagement with people of diplomacy. United Nations Permanent Forum on people of African descent and other excellencies, dignitaries and of course I must recognize my own prime minister, Mayor Mley.
The door of return has been flung open.
Thus, we are here.
And it is significant that Ghana has opened the door of return.
Some 10 million of our people were shipped across the Atlantic to Carryconom.
Another 10 million were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas.
Returning through this door of return is not just the history of that atrocity.
What has returned is a level of consciousness returning through this door.
that will shape the world in this 21st century.
Returning through this door is the CarryCom 10point plan for global reparatory justice.
But we always understood that what was taken out of Africa across the Atlantic was not just labor, not just enchained enslaved labor, but what went across the Atlantic were also ideas, philosophies, humanity, arts, culture, All of that went across the Atlantic and returning CarryCom 10point plan for global Africa represents all of those cosmologies.
The resolution which was The resulting of a revolution, a revolution, a global revolution in global African consciousness that produced that resolution. ution.
And again, it is fitting that we are here in Ghana to plan the next steps in the island of Barbados.
Our prime minister is here.
It was the first colony in the Americas where Africans became the majority Barbados.
It was also this Barbados colony that was a Ghanaian colony because the majority of the people there were G fanti Santi Barbados was little Ghana and it's interesting that here in little Ghana.
In 1675, that first generation of Ghanaians organized an islandwide revolution to overthrow cattle slavery.
That revolution was defeated on the 12th of June 1675.
Coffee was going to be installed as the Asanti of Barbados.
They failed and 25 of them were burnt alive in Barbados.
It was the first burning of Ghanaians and Africans and a ritual in the Americas.
So here we have returned with a 10-point plan.
The result of resistance, the result of resilience.
We the historians, we have done the research.
40% of all the ships that took the enslaved Africans across the Atlantic experience a rebellion of one kind or another. So the resistance started here. It continued on the slave ships.
It continued in the colonies.
So we are returning here as survivors of that revolution.
Now this door of return is therefore a door of dignity and critically a door of destiny.
When all the European powers pass acts of emancipation, when all of them pass acts of emancipation, they denied the enslaved people reparations.
Our forebe parents asked for it. They demanded it. They petitioned the parliaments of Europe asking, "If you are giving reparations to the enslavers, why are we the enslaved not receiving reparations?"
They petitioned the British Parliament, the French Parliament, the Dutch Parliament, the Danish Parliament, all of the parliaments of Europe were petitioned by those who were emancipated. Where is our reparations?
The response was from the parliaments of Europe.
You have received your freedom. That is your reparations.
Now be silent. Be silent.
Then a 100 years later in the Caribbean, we demanded sovereignty.
And in our demand for sovereignty and nationhood and independence, again we ask for reparations.
How could we build nations without reparatory justice?
And again the Europeans told us be silent.
We are giving you sovereignty. Now be silent. And since you demanded it, you are now on your own.
Again, we were denied justice.
And here we are now with a resolution in the United Nations.
And we are now at the beginning of a unique journey because this is the first time that we're all now speaking from the same page.
All African peoples all over the world are now speaking for the first time with one voice.
And this is why this moment will yield the results that we have been asking for for 200 years. Now we're here. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, one more time for Professor Sir Hillary Beckles, chair of the Carry Kong Reparations Commission.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me the utmost pleasure and honor to welcome on stage the writer, the playwriter, the Nobel laurette winner. Please welcome Wule Soyena.
Greetings dear excellencies, heads of states, ministers, my comrades from all over the world.
I wish to add to the welcome you received my own personal welcome a semigana since I did stay in Ghana quite uh a number of years when I found myself on one of my political exiles Ghana welcomed me and I've never forgotten that.
Mr. President, sir, I hope you realize that you placed both yourself and your citizens in potential quarantine.
But you'll be in good company because now I see before me a whole international community of the quarantine.
Let me explain your historic your historic resolution had hardly dried on the airwaves and social media and everything when I walked past the television station. And there was a ticker tape announcement by one of the um the former slaving nations the many which read I will not mention the name but I have no doubt the same sentiment was entertained by those who did not actually voice that decision that policy and it said our country will have to consider very carefully Y from now on are those nationals whose governments supported or support the quest for reparatory justice.
It was very strange.
I felt a golden opportunity had been given to the slaving nations, to the outer world, and even to ourselves on this continent to reexamine a divisive history, a divisive state which went for centuries which till today has left its mark on the relationships between the so-called developed nations, the colonizing imperial nations and the victim nations among whom we consider ourselves.
But how do you actually define a quest for anything voiced or unvoiced?
Especially when it relates to memory.
We all live within a commemorative environment, negative and positive.
you commemorate all the time. Of course, there are different kinds of commemoration of commemoratives.
You have the static ones. Take this nation Ghana for instance which has it has been remarked uh probably the largest number of slaves of slaving uh edififices the forts the castles specially built to receive human commodity and transport them to alien lands.
We live among them both the citizens and the visitors. You can hardly walk a few miles without encountering some kind of commemorative to the negative experience of this continent, the former forts. So these are the self constitutive commemoratives, the forts.
Then there are the really creative ones such as for instance the performance which we witness this evening such as the films like Amistad like Django the documentaries the archives which are being refurbished reinvigorated augmented all the time.
These are the creative aspects of commemoratives.
Then you have of course and this is that sector which agitates me most. You have what I call the commemoratives of perpetual iniquity.
I refer to the extent slave markets which still exist on this country in in on this continent.
I refer to the kidnapping of school children who we send to these institutions of learning and who end up being kidnapped because they are ready markets for them.
Oh, never mind what motivations are being cited a religious uh self assertion. No, ultimately these victims, these kidnap victims are being sent through special channels to the slave markets of this con of this continent.
If you make inquiries from Nigeria where I come from from the department of the diaspora, you'll learn even rescue plane chartered planes which have taken which have managed to retrieve nationals from the slave marketers and brought back to Nigeria.
They arrive are like emotional uh returnees. The first action is that symbolic act of kneeling and kissing the ground from which they had been taken.
But the most pernicious of these iniquities are the children, the youths who till today are being kidnapped and sent to the slave markets to be shared by our kidnappers.
When I addressed the United Nations last year, I made a point of telling my audience that the slave trade is not over.
But it is indeed very active.
Even as I speak now, we have children, youths, school children who being held in uh forest fastnesses destined for the slave markets.
Now the nation are from a colonizing nation and slaving nation which said they will not they will consider very seriously the granting of visas to those who insist on reparations.
Are they really thinking are they of this world or are they from another planet?
If ever there was a justification for this gathering, it is those of that mental state, a retrogressive understanding of history and of human relationships.
And so I welcome all of you on behalf of the president to the new community of visa quarantines.
We shall proceed with our mission.
As I stated at the very beginning, there are different kinds of commemoratives, but the one which I think we all looking for, at least a critical aspect of the next step forward ought to be a dynamic one.
We have some moving truly emotional commemoratives such as the one in uh Na for instance in France. one of the most moving commemoratives I've ever seen to the slave trade. You have other commemoratives not so enobling.
You have commemoratives also in the negative mode such as droves of migrants from Africa drowning the Mediterranean simply because they're looking for a different economic kind of liberation.
But there are consequences also of the inorganic disruption uh development that took place on the African continent. And the responsibility for this, let me stress, it's not just the outer world. It's also certain forms of leadership that we have on this continent who continue to regard their own citizens as just slaves to be treated just to be treated.
These are all consequences of a certain mental warp that has taken place in us and not only on this continent but in some place in the diaspora as a result of that experience that dehumanizing experience of being enslaved.
And so I want to thank you Mr. president for this initiative and I want to stress that any means that enable us to recover collectively the rehumanization even of memory not just of the present but even of memory is essential to the development collective development of those who've been traumatized as a people by this iniquitous commodity in human beings.
Uh let us move mentally and practically towards the dynamizing of the commemoratives which exist. We have to move now beyond just the performances, the discussions, the rhetoric, even the economic aspects of a retrieval of an egalitarian relationship between us and them.
We have to recognize the fact that even our mental conditioning is involved and in the diaspora in particular. That is why the diaspora is such a critical aspect of this. That is why the door of return as our colleague there has stressed is more than just a symbolic passing through a doorway. is a return to certain values, certain human values which we which were distorted or simply totally wiped out of our collective appreciation of a reality of the world we inhabit. So I welcome all of you and I promise you that whatever we on this side of the citizen humanity can do to assist in that collective restoration will be addressed both body and soul. Welcome once again.
Let us start to the next step practically and I join you in this moment of celebration of a courageous resolution. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you sir. Thank you very much.
Professor Winka, Nobel Laurier writer and playwriter.
Ladies and gentlemen, please help me um say a big thank you to my co-host Jerry Aolo who is so gracious to be with me on the stage this morning or this afternoon. Once again, this is history in the making, Jerry, by the way. I've never actually co-hosted with you before.
Victoria, can we please give a big round of applause once again for all of our dignitaries, ladies and gentlemen who have given us their insights, their words of wisdom, and their knowledge.
Thank you.
>> Your excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, today we recognize that justice is never carried by one voice alone. I guess that is true, but for the most part, one voice certainly lights the way. like Bob Mi, like Peter Tosh, like our very own Rocky Dawi, like Huma Ka, and most importantly, ladies and gentlemen, Maria Makiba. But joining the pantheon of such great voices through the years is a gift to this generation and beyond. Please welcome the ever brilliant international radio superstar, Grump Morgan.
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I greet you in the divine name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.
I greet you on behalf of the people of Jamaica and the Daspora. Blessings. I am one of the children of the transatlantic slave trade.
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So, let the truth be told, Honorable Mama, I salute you. Thank you. Last year 2025, I was on tour and the leader of the country of Antigga and Barbuda wrote a song called reparations.
Shortly after 2026, the honorable boldly went before the United Nations and said, "Let's have a conversation."
And I found out that we have something in common. I am not a politician but I am a music and we say music is the rock we are Moses most honorable Samuel thank you again mama is a joy to see you in Africa thank you for always doing what you do for the Caribbean and most honorable pastor great wherever you are thank you for always champion Jamaica so I will sing this song for the people let's heal listen to words Heat. Heat.
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Muhammad, do not stop the fight. As the elder said from Nigeria, we are all now in this fight together.
There's no turning back now. Let's help them build a plan. as well as the children of the transatlantic slave trade need to heal. The children of the slave master need to heal. So we have to do it together.
So I say Portugal, Netherlands, UK, Spain, all who had a hand in the transatlant transatlantic slave trade.
Let us heal together. Listen to the words of this one. This is called reparations.
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Put your hands together and let's celebrate this precious gift. Graham Smorggan.
And that was just not music. It was a bridge. It was indeed one we so badly needed to heal and to connect. Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, we now move to the presidential keynotes, reminded of the fact that history shows us that progress often begins when leaders choose courage over comfort.
Today we now turn to our leaders, heads of state and government whose voices carry the hopes of nations, regions and communities committed to a more just and inclusive world. Would you please make welcome for his remarks representing the prime minister of Equatorial Guinea, the first deputy prime minister, his excellency Muaba Mesu?
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I plan to commence your President of the Republic of Sineagor the President of the Republic of Namibia from Dr. Your Excellency John Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana and African Union Champion on the advancing the cause of justice and payment of reparation.
Your excellencies, heads of state and government and former heads of state and government, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
I brought fraternal greetings from the people of Namibia to the people of Ghana as we meet to discuss the darkest past of Africa history, the transatlantic slave trade.
This discussion will lead to healing wounds and seek for restorative justice.
I thank his excellency President Mahama for the kind invitation extended to Namibia to attend this historical conference which in reality is to operationalize the UN resolution on slave trade.
We are also grateful to see entering the door of return and this really gives us a comfort adding to the hospitality accorded to us here in Ghana.
It is significant that we are here in Ghana, one of the countries that bears witness to one of humanity's darkest chapter.
In Ghana, the history of transientic trade is not confined to books and assars.
It lives in the forts and castles that still stand a silent reminder of the suffering endured by millions of African men, women, and children.
One can only imagine the fear, uncertaintity and heartbroken of those who passed through the doors of no return.
as they took their final steps on African soil, not knowing they were going, not knowing if they would ever see their families again, many did not even know that generations later, they are descended will be searching for pieces of their identity, language, and heritage that were taken away from me. As it could be expected, even as they were carried away from Africa, Africa never left them. Across generations and across oceans, they carried fragments of our history, our resilience, our spirit, and of our humanity. Today we honor those survived, those who resisted, and those whose descendants still seek justice and dignity.
It is therefore befitting that we meet here in Ghana, a nation that reminds us not only of their pain, of our shared past, but also of the resilience of the African people and the enduring bonds between the continent and its diaspora.
Ghana occupies a special place in Africa's history as the first subsahara African country to attain independence.
It understood early that its own freedom would remain incomplete until the rest of the continent was free. Under the leadership of Dr. Kam Krummer, Ghana became a beacon for African liberation and unity. Today, as the continent advance the cause for restorative justice, Ghana is once again demonstrating leadership by convening and guiding this important global conversation.
Namibia stands here ready to join others and work together in this journey to adopt the adoption of the United Nation resolution a/ resolution 80/250 is an important historical landmark yet is not a destination. nation. It is the beginning of a journey towards truth, acknowledgment, healing, and justice for millions of Africans and people of African descent whose lives were forever changed by slavery, colonialism, and historical injustice.
We speak about those matters.
When we speak about those matters, we are speaking about real people.
Mothers and fathers spareheaded from taken away from their children. Their families were torn apart, uprooted from their communities and find themselves in a situation that they could not imagine. The effects of those injustice did not disappear when slavery ended or colonial flags were lowered. They continue to shape lives today through inequality, poverty, lost opportunities and at times how people see themselves in their places in the world. It must however be underscored that for more than a century now families have been searching for their ancestors.
There's something profoundly painful about knowing that those who suffered such cruelity were denied even the dignity of resting in the soul of their homeland. Their return is not made a matter of history is a matter of humanity, dignity and closer for generations that continue to carry this burden. Namibia.
For Namibia, this discussion is deeply personal.
While today's conference focus on transentalic slaves trait, it also speaks to the broader African journey towards restorative justice. In 2006, the Namibian Parliament passed a motion on genocide, apology and rep and reparation and directed and directed the Namibian government to engage the German government that committed the genocide in Namibia against the Heros and Nama between 1904 4 to 1908 becoming the first genocide in the 20th century. Subsequently, for the past 9 years, our government accompanied by our people have been engaging the German government on the matter. Of course, the process of negotiation has not always been easy. It requires patient, resilience, and unwavering commitment to dialogue. One lesson we have learned is that justice is not really a straightforward road. It is often slow and uncomfortable.
However, we remain engaged as a solution has to be found. It is a fact that lasting reconciliation can only be built on truth, acknowledgment, and mutual respect. For many Namibians, genocide did not ended in 1908.
It is echoes continue in this day. The remains of some of those who were killed were removed from our country and transported to Germany where they are becoming where they become objects of study, research, display and collection.
As part of trying to heal the wounds of genocide, our parliament has passed a motion declaring 28th May as a genocide remembrance day and a public holiday. As the fifth president of the Republic of Namibia, I was honored to launch that day last year 2025.
And this year for the first time the day was remembered with huge gatherings all over the country. Director of ceremonies as Africans we cannot ask we are not asking the world to carry our pain for us. We are simply asking that our pain be heard, understood and respected on its own terms. No people should have to convince us that their suffering was real. True reconciliation begin when people are allowed to tell their own story and have those stories accepted with honesty.
As we advise this course, we must remember an important lesson from history.
The greatest victories against the African people were often achieved when division was allowed to take root among us.
Our responsibility is not to revisit old division but to strengthen our solidarity.
We need to be united. We may come from different countries and speak different language but our collective future depends on our ability to stand together around a common purpose. In that spirit, we extend our hand to our brothers and sisters across the diaspora. The trans and Atlantic slave trades separated millions of Africans from their homeland and in many cases from their language, culture and ancestral identity. In recognition this unbreakable bonds between us, the African Union in article 3K Q of the AU constitutive act called for the full participation of the Africans in diaspora in the union's activities.
It was against this background that in 20043 the AU formally declared the diaspora as the sixth region alongside north, south, east, west and central Africa and one would really want to see that this region fully participate in the work of the union for centuries. ries systems of slavery and colonialism sought not only to control people physically but also to shape how they see themselves.
The damage was not only done to bodies and length. It was also done to destroy confidence, identity and self-belief.
Many of the physical child chains have long been broken but some of the mental chains remain. The late Bob me Mari captured this truth when he reminded us and say and I quote emancipate yourself from mental slavery.
None but ourself can free ourself.
Therefore, this therefore the struggle before us is not only about reparations.
It is about claiming our confidence as African, teaching our children the truth about their history and rejecting the forest narrative that sought to diminish the wealth of the African people. Our ancestors endured unimag unimaginable hardship. Yet they survived. They resisted.
They preserved their humanity in circumstance designed to stripe them away. We owe it to them not only to remember but also to continue their in unfinished journey towards justice.
Africa is not seeking to the opening of old wounds. Africa is seek seeking to heal the wounds that were never healed.
The struggle for restorative justice is not driven by bitterness. It is driven by the belief that genuine reconciliation can only be achieved when truth is acknowledged. dignity is restored and history confronted with honesty.
I once once more commend the leadership of President Mahama, the government and the people of Ghana and all those who contributed to the adoption of the landmark his landmark resolution.
History has brought us to this moment.
The question before us is therefore whether we have courage, ready and unity to finish the work that previous generation began. I on behalf of Namibia I believe we do and believe as we are let us do it. I thank you for your kind attention.
Would you please rise and in solidarity put your fist in the air.
Beat your chest with that fist. Stamp your feet and put your hands together for African unity, resilience and growth. Please be seated.
Many thanks to your excellency Dr. Nutmbbu Nandi Nyatwa the president of the republic of Namibia for that very inspiring address. And now, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, we shall hear from the president of the Republic of Liberia, His Excellency Joseph Numa Guai Senior.
Your Excellency Ren John Ramay Muhammed, President of Republic of Ghana, Your Excellencies as of State Government, distinguished representatives of the African Union, Caric Sil and the Global African diaspora, the United Nations agencies and institutions, civil society, development partners.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor to address this conference and to serve on the Glover advisory panel of the reparatory justice.
I thank my brother and friend John Mahama and the government and the people of Ghana conveying this important gathering.
It is fitting that we meet on these historic shores still marked by the memory of those who were torn from their homes, families, and communities and force across the Atlantic.
This sovereign still calls us to confront one of the history's grievous crimes against humanity.
We get it to ensure that this resolution becomes not only a statement of historic recognition but also a framework for truth, justice, healing, and institutional repairs.
more than 500 years after the first victims were taken across the Atlantic and 200 years after the trade was formally abolished.
The adoption on March 26, 2026 of the United Nations resolution recognizing the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized charter enslavement of Africans among the gravest crimes against humanity marks a significant and necessary moral moment.
We honor the millions who suffered and died, those who resisted and survived, and the descendants who continue to live with its effect.
This resolution carries profound significance.
It acknowledges the wrongs of the past and recognizes how the continuing vestigages of the Atlantic slave trade shape our present realities and influence the future of our one world. For Liberia, the legacy of transatlantic slave trade is woven into the fabric of our national story and continues to shift our understanding of identity, belonging, and nationhood.
Our experience demonstrates that the consequences of slavery cannot be measured solely in terms of lost labor, stolen wealth or economic deprivation.
They also include intergenerational social, cultural, psychological and political impact that can persist for centuries.
If we are to pursue meaningful reparatory justice, our efforts must extend beyond financial considerations.
They must also embrace historical truthtelling, reconciliation, identity restoration, cultural healing, education, institution building, and the strengthening of our social cohesion.
As we consider the next steps following this historic resolution, Liberia offers its experience as evidence of justice, healing, and reconciliation are inseparable from the sustainable development and lasting peace.
With this resolution not adapted, the question before us is simple. What must we do next?
Allow me therefore to propose five priorities for implementation.
First, we must develop a common African position.
an implementation framework in collaboration with the claricon and diaspora organizations supported by coordinated roadmap with clear priorities responsibilities and timeliness.
Second, working with the United Nations, we should establish an African Union United Nation Expert Commission to design a global reparatory justice mechanism. Third, we must confront misinformation and enrage a true truth, education, and research by strengthening the teaching of African history.
preserving archives and supporting universities and research institutions across Africa and the diaspora.
Fourth, repairing historical runs requires the restitution of strolling cultural artifacts and heritage objects together with development partnership that address persistent inequalities rooted in slavery and its aftermath.
The skill and depth of trafficking of in enslaved Africans and racialized shuttle enslavement cannot be measured fully in financial terms alone.
Yet the transatlantic slave trade forced labor and resource extraction generated enormous wealth that shaped the economic foundations of many societies across the world.
There is no doubt that the slave trade and its aftermath contributed profoundly to the inequality and the underdevelopment in Africa and across the global south.
The past has helped shape the inequalities of the present.
Fifth, we call for development partnerships and the Grover initiative that address persistent inequalities and underdevelopment rooted in slavery and its aftermath grounded in shared responsibility and mutual respect.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, to all those across the world who seek to understand and engage honestly with this history and to the nations and societies whose share task is now to help chart the path forward. The call for reparatory justice is not an effort to assign personal guilt to the present generation for the sins of the past.
Rather, it is a call for understanding, empathy, and willingness to confront uncomfortable truth.
We invite our partners across the world to share in our anguish, to recognize the enduring consequences of the historic injustice, and to join in a common commitment to healing and repair.
together.
Let us for a sole impact that the demonization, exploitation and racialized employment of any people shall never ever again find refuge in our institution, our economies or our collective conscience.
Let this be a common prophet promised to humanity and to generations unborn.
History has brought us to a real defining moment.
Future generations will judge us not by the eloquence of our de declaration but by the courage of our actions.
This resolution has opened a door.
Whether the door leads to meaningful justice, reconciliation, and healing now depends on our collective resolve.
Let us not be remembered as another conference or another resolution that stirred consciences briefly before failing into history.
Let it be remembered as a moment when the word chose truth over silence, justice over hesitation and moral courage over the comfort of the status quo.
Today through us those voices speak again.
They call not for vengeance but for recision not for division but for reconciliation not for cl charity but for justice.
Let us therefore leave a craft united in purpose and committed to ensuring that the gravest crime against humanity is met with one of the humanity's greatest responses.
A determined global effort to restore dignity, repair historical wrongs, and build a future founded on equality, shared prosperity, and our common humanity.
If we succeed, generations yet unborn will remember that this moment we chose not simply to remember history, but to help shape it.
May God bless us and I wish my friend and brother John M congratulations for his success and the winning of a various very very important march last night. May God bless us all.
to the president of the Republic of Liberia, his excellency Joseph Numar Buakai Senior. Please a round of applause.
Shortly we get to hear from our convenor the president of our republic who will also establish the global panels comprising advisory council on reparatory justice the expert panel on restitution of cultural artifacts a panel on legal experts for reparatory justice and then we will get to see for ourselves live and in living color a true symbol of restitution made here in Ara Ghana before that however we have a few remarks marks. Let's now receive the prime minister, I beg your pardon, the president of the Democratic Republic of Sto and Precipe, his excellency Carlos Manuel Villa Nova for his address.
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I'm talking about the Caribbean. Would you please make welcome the prime minister of Barbados, Excellency Mayor Amore Mley.
Thank you very much your excellency my dear brother President John Mama excellencies heads of state colleague heads of government distinguished guests all we've come to Accra to declare that the age of accountability has finally reached the gravest crime in humanity.
We have come to Accra to enter through the door so that we can join hands and ensure that we together can be direct in our requests and in our actions.
To defend memory without retreat. To turn recognition into repair.
And yes, to build an Africa Caribbean future with the power to protect our future generations.
Let me thank Ghana profoundly on behalf of the Caribbean community to allow us to be here, the government and people of Ghana coming after your historic resolution in the United Nations earlier this year.
We in Caraccom have been fighting now for virtually a decade on this issue of reparations.
And we believe that this effort to bring all of our global partners here together in Ara will allow for this too to be regarded as a historic moment.
I have said that our attempt to be able to speak in the issue of accountability is critical for for us. We live in a world today where people call out people for everything for misogyny, for sexual assault, for all kinds of behavior.
But yet we have not found the moral courage to state unanimously across humanity that this grave crime against humanity that p persisted for centuries ought to be declared so by all.
That others choose to remain silent is a reflection of them not of us.
We have equally come to say that there should be no retreat on repair.
The language used from this platform this morning is not one of aggression, is not one of violence, but it is one of the necessity for healing for humanity.
The Trinidadian author Earl Loveless wrote a book for which he received the Commonwealth Book Prize. It is called salt. I commend it to all of you because it recognizes in a long labor of love that he took for more than a decade to write it that it is only through healing that we will begin to truly unlock our potential as citizens of this world.
Regrettably, the world in which we function is still very much the child of that old order and of that bigotry that would have declared us cattle and property. There are others who say that there's been slavery before, but ours was the only one to declare us as cattle and as property. I stand here today on behalf of the government and people of Barbados conscious that our duty is to repair and our duty is to call for others to repair.
Regrettably, our parliament was the first parliament, as you heard from Sir Hillary earlier, to establish the 1661 slave code two decades before the code noir, which has just been repealed in France.
That slave code came to be mimicked, copied exactly in some of the colonies of the United States of America and the Caribbean and in others used as a platform for their own slave laws. It is the categorization of us as subhuman. It is the categorization of us as children, as property, that stripped us of our dignity first and foremost, but equally removed from us the choices that are necessary in life to truly express freedom.
We have come to ask that those efforts be coordinated in such a way such that we can bring healing to our population and that we can remove from our legacy.
Those who feel ashamed and injustice at the use of the word black.
those who feel ashamed and unfaired by reason of the treatment that our people have had meed out to them and regrettably through the systems and corridors of power that still reflect first class and secondass citizens of the world.
I believe that our working together with the carry-com 10-point plan on reparatory justice which has been revised in which we have brought some copies here to share in Ara will add to the excellent work which you are doing and the establishment of the committees that will carry on the work for our people.
These committees, however, will only mean something if we can stay together united and not allow division yet again to be the anchor for those who want to win against us.
This is not a quick journey.
In 1896, 130 years ago, the battle of Adwa was won and the beginning of the Panaffricanist movement took root.
Almost 70 years ago, in this country, Ghana, you summoned the world to join you as you embarked on the journey of nationhood and independence.
Today in 2026, President Mama, you have summoned us again to join you. And we the children of Africa and its diaspora are clear as to our responsibility and are clear that even though journeys are not always finished by the same people, even though battles are not won by those sometimes who started, that our duty nevertheless must be resolute and our commitment and solidarity unshakable.
I have every confidence that we will come to understand that the Union of Africa and the Caribbean can bring prosperity and stability to our people. But we cannot do so if we choose only to wait on others to determine reparations.
In our own individual countries, the process to development is an act of reparation alone. In my own country, we provide free pre- primary to tertiary education, free health care, and equally we have undertaken one of the most ambitious forms of land redistribution in the Americas, recognizing that we cannot ask others before we do for ourselves that which is our duty.
Once that is done then we have a responsibility to work together to bring development to our people.
This continent of Africa has been blessed with much and it is blessed with the development of the demographic bounty people that will help the 21st century work out the difficulties that we face today. The world is troubled but we have a pathway through reparations for ourselves by ourselves to start the process. And once that process is started, then it becomes easier for us to engage not as an act of charity as you have heard from these platforms, but as an act of justice, not as a request for war or divisiveness, but as the start for an era of enlightenment and a healing that will allow us to show the rest of the world what we all know.
that when human beings live together, see each other, feel each other, hear each other, share with each other, a better world can be had.
I call upon us here not to treat to this as just simply another event, but to recognize that in all that we domestically and internationally that the time has come to remake and reshape the rules that allow our people to be seen, heard, and felt. And it shall only come if we remain resolute in that journey. President Mahama, the people of the Caribbean have come to join hands. Our CARICOM 10point plan did not just drop out drop out of the wilderness. We ask specifically in this plan and I share with you the details of that request.
A full and formal apology by those responsible.
An indigenous people's development program for we must never forget the genocide of our indigenous people that took place even before the institution of slavery was started.
The repatriation and resettlement of our people for those who want. The restitution of cultural heritage and cultural reconnection.
The remedying of the public health crisis that was as a result of centuries of exploitation.
The capacity building and development through education and training that is so necessary to correct the deficit which we inherited at independence.
The compensation for gender-based violence and assault on family, no different from the compensation that has been awarded to other nationalities such as the Japanese, psychological rehabilitation, the right to sovereignty and development through technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, and my friends, yes, in the spirit of the Bridgestong Initiative, debt cancellation, monetary compensation and decolonization.
I share these things and topics with you because in this room each one of us can find common purpose with at least one or more of the requests of the Caribbean community. And I ask us therefore, let us not embark on separate journeys, but let us today reflect the unity of purpose, the recognition that whether it is through advocacy or advisory opinions or actions.
Our role is to ensure that there is no retreat from our requests and that we recognize that repair comes after recognition. For in all that we do in the rest of our lives, where damage is perpetrated, where damage is perpetrated, repair is always, always required. May God bless Africa and the Caribbean. May God bless Ghana and Barbados. May God bless each of us and give us the resolve to continue this battle. Conscious that in AdWa 130 years ago it was not expected that they could win.
We today in spite of the odds know in the words of Gramps Morgan just now that J shall wash away our tears and that we shall win and survive. Thank you.
Before I leave the stage, President Muhammad, please allow me. In Barbados, we will open later this year on the 28th of November, a monument that reflects our reverence to 570 slaves that were buried on the Newton plantation.
It is part of what we term the reclaiming of our Atlantic destiny.
The monument has been designed by a son of Africa who lives right here, David Ajay. And we want to invite all of you because this is just the beginning of the telling of our story. We have the second largest transatlantic slave records. And we know that for this movement to be real and effective, it cannot be the movement of governments and university lecturers and lawyers and economists alone. It must be a movement of the people. Join us in Barbados on November 28th. Thank you.
Hallelujah.
Thank you ever so much. It was the great UB40 who wrote this 40 years ago. The great flood of tears that we've cried for our brothers and sisters who died over 400 years have washed away our fears and strengthened our pride. Now we turn back the tide. This is how we sing our very own songs. Let's put our hands together for resilient Africa claiming back its glory.
We're joined by the government of the French Republic here represented by a delegation.
It's my pleasure to acknowledge the delegation before we hear from the president of the republic.
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Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, his excellency Emmanuel Mcron, president of the French Republic.
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The president of the French Republic, his excellency Emmanuel Mcron would like to acknowledge the delegation here to represent him. The ambassador for human rights of the French Republic, Ambassador Isabel Rom joins us. Please, a round of applause for her. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, please do come.
Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, please help me welcome our keynote speaker for the day, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, and also the African Reunion Champion for Advancing the Courts of Justice and reparations of Africans and people of the African descent, His Excellency John Romani Mahama.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Let me acknowledge my colleagues, heads of states and uh thank you all for making the journey join us here in Ara for this all important conference the next steps. I want to also commend and express my appreciation to all who have spoken this morning including our revered uh writer and playright uh Will Shoinka and also to acknowledge all the members of the diplomatic core traditional rulers members of the council of states and everybody who has come to join us for this allimportant conference.
Today, ACRA becomes the meeting place of history, conscience, and responsibility.
We gather not merely to discuss the past, but to determine how humanity responds to one of the greatest crimes ever committed against the people.
We gather because history has summoned us to complete a conversation that began centuries ago and remains unfinished.
I wish to warmly welcome all participants who have traveled from around the world to take part in this conference.
Your presence here reflects a shared recognition that the issues before us transcend national boundaries and speak instead to our common humanity, our shared history, and our collective responsibility to future generations.
On 25th September 2025 last year, I stood before the United Nations General Assembly and announced Ghana's intention to introduce a resolution declaring the traffic of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.
At that time, it was a bold proposition.
It was ambitious, necessary, but uncertain in its outcome. It was rooted in our conviction that humanity must confront this history with greater honesty and clarity. Not merely because of what happened centuries ago, but because of the enduring consequences that continue to shape societies and communities across the world even today.
There was no certainty that such a proposition would command broad international support. And yet exactly 6 months later on 25th of March 2026 the United Nations General Assembly addressed that proposition and by decisive majority member states adopted resolution A/Re80/250 marking a historic step in the international community's acknowledgement of the scale brutality and enduring consequences of the trafficking of enslaved Africans and of racialized this chart enslavement.
But before proceeding further, I wish to express my profound appreciation to all the 123 member states that supported the resolution as well as to the many institutions, scholars, civil society organizations, faith leaders, activists and advocates whose dedication over many years made its adoption possible. Their efforts contributed significantly to creating the conditions for a more honest and constructive global conversation.
For Ghana, this effort is not just an excise in diplomacy. It is a moral obligation that is rooted in our history, our identity, and our responsibility as a nation whose shores hold both the tragedy of departure and the hope of return.
We do not seek to reopen old wounds. We seek to heal those wounds. We do not seek division. We seek justice and understanding and reconciliation grounded in the truth. At the same time, the significance of this conference lies not only in the support that made the resolution possible, but also in the willingness of a broader community of nations and institutions to engage in the work that follows.
The pursuit of historical justice is not strengthened by narrowing the circle of participation. It is strengthening strengthened by expanding it. It is strengthened when those who may approach these issues from different historical, political or legal perspectives nevertheless choose dialogue over silence and engagement over distance.
In that spirit, I urge all participants gathered here today to approach our deliberations with openness, humility, and a shared commitment to advancing human dignity.
Distinguished guest, the adoption of the resolution was never intended to mark the end of the journey. It was intended to provide the foundation for a more meaningful process of engagement, reflection, and action.
Less than 3 months after his adoption, we're here in Ara to address the question that naturally follows. What are the next steps?
We're here because recognition creates responsibility and because the enduring consequences of this history continue to demand thoughtful, coordinated, and sustained international engagement.
It is certain that we meet in Ghana. A few places in the world bear such vivid physical testimony to this history as our country. From Albina in the central region and Cape Coast to Asen Mansu and Usu, our land holds some of the most visible reminders of a system that uprooted millions of Africans and altered the course of world history.
Not too far from where we're gathered today stands castles, dungeons, and the doors of no return through which countless Africans pass before disappearing over the horizon. For many, that horizon marked the end of everything they knew. And yet today the descendants of those journeys have returned not in chains but as presidents as prime ministers as scholars as jurists as activists as historians and citizens of the world.
History has brought us full circle.
These historic sites connect Africa to the Caribbean, to North and South America, and to communities across the globe whose histories and identities were shaped by this shared experience.
We therefore gather not only as representatives of our states, but as partners in a common effort to confront the enduring legacies of this history and to build a future that is greater than the past that we have inherited.
As we reflect on this history, it is important to remember that the experience of enslavement was not borne equally by all who endured it. While millions of African men, women, and children suffered the violence and indignity of the transatlantic slave trade, the experiences of women and girls were marked by forms of brutality that have too often been marginalized in the historical record.
History remembers the names of the chefs, the merchants, and the trading companies. Yet, far too often, it forgets the woman whose body became a sight of exploitation or the mother standing on the shore uncertain whether she would ever see her child again.
For many enslaved women, exploitation did not end just with providing labor.
Their bodies became the their bodies themselves became instruments of economic extraction.
Their capacity to bear children was transformed into a means of reproducing bondage across generations.
Their suffering was often concealed from the official record, leaving them victims not only of the institution but also of historical erasia.
And so today we must also pay tribute to the extraordinary women whose courage, resilience and leadership have sustained the long struggle for freedom.
From nani of the maroons in Jamaica whose story is believed to have began on the shores of present day Ghana to Harriet Tubman and Sjona Truth. Women have been at the forefront of resistance against oppression.
Their courage was mared by countless others whose names history has failed to record and yet whose sacrifices help preserve families, communities, and hope in the most difficult of circumstances.
We also honor the women of our time, the scholars, the activists, the jurists, the public servants, policy makers, and civil society leaders who continue to champion this cause. And many of those women are present in this hall today.
Their contributions have helped bring us to this historic moment and continue to shape the path that we must take ahead.
Their stories remind us that reparatory justice must also be gender responsive.
The historical experiences of women and girls cannot remain footnotes in the global narrative. They must occupy their rightful place at the center of truthtelling, remembrance and redress.
And so any framework for truthtelling, memorialization, reparatory justice or historical reckoning that fails to recognize the specific experience of women will remain incomplete.
And so to all the women who have carried this course often without recognition and who continue to advance it with conviction, intellect and determination, we see you. We honor your contribution.
We're profoundly grateful for your effort.
Distinguished guests, as we confront this history honestly, we must also be clear about what it demands of us.
None of us gathered in this hall today can be held personally responsible for the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade and racialized chatel enslavement of Africans.
We did not build the ships that crossed the Atlantic. We did not provide the insurance for loss of human cargo at sea. We did not operate the castles and plantations.
We did not create the legal systems that transformed human beings into property or denied them their most basic human rights. Those crimes belong to another age. And yet every generation inherits responsibilities from the past.
History does not ask us to inherit guilt, but it ask us to inherit responsibility.
While we may not bear responsibility for actions committed centuries ago, were responsible for the world those actions have helped to create.
We inherit the institutions, the inequalities and the structures that history has left behind. We inherit both the achievements and the failures of those who came before us. And the question is therefore not whether we are guilty of the past or whether we are prepared to address its enduring consequences.
That is the test facing our generation.
Indeed, one of the most encouraging developments since the adoption of the resolution has been the growing willingness of institutions and governments across the world to engage more openly with that history.
We must be prepared to engage constructively even with the descendants of those who made the enslavement of our forefathers and our form possible.
Indeed, since the resolution, we've witnessed significant acts of acknowledgement and reflection by religious institutions, including the historic statement by his holiness Pope Leo I 14th, as well as ongoing engagements by the Church of Scotland and the Church of England regarding their historical links to slavery.
We also welcome the growing engagement of national leaders and governments in advancing dialogue on historical justice, including the message we just heard from President Emanuel Macron.
Such developments are significance because they demonstrate a willingness to engage with difficult truths and to confront history honestly. Distinguished guest, one of the most important lessons from this history is that its consequences have never been confined to a single geographical region.
The transatlantic slave trade connected continents through pain and suffering.
It linked the shores of Africa to the Caribbean and to North and South America and to communities across the world whose identities, cultures, and history were forever shaped by the forced displacement of millions of Africans.
And yet, even as it dispersed people across oceans and continents, it forged enduring bonds that continue to unite Africans and people of African descent today.
It is therefore fitting that Africa and the Caribbean continue to stand together in advancing this agenda.
The adoption of the resolution was made possible by decades of advocacy and cooperation among African states, caricom scholars, civil society organizations, faith communities, legal experts and members of the African diaspora.
And so the progress we have made demonstrates what is possible when we act not in isolation but in partnership.
And so the next phase of this work must be guided by the same spirit.
As the African Union Champion on reparations, I strongly support the decision of the African Union Assembly to establish an African Caribbean joint mechanism on reparative justice.
The crime we seek to address was transcontinental in its reach.
Its consequences remain transcontinental in its impact and the search for justice must therefore be transcontinental in its ambition.
Distinguished guests, the work before us extend beyond Africa and the Caribbean.
It requires constructive engagement with partners from across all regions of the world. It requires the participation of governments, international organizations, academic institutions, civil society organizations, faith communities, and cultural institutions.
It requires us to build coalitions broad enough to sustain progress and inclusive enough to foster trust.
Most importantly, the future we seek must be guided by a commitment to reparatory justice that is forwardlooking in its purpose and transformative in its ambition.
Reparatory justice is not only about acknowledging the past. It is also about expanding opportunity, advancing human development, and creating a more just future for communities affected by the enduring consequences of this historical injustice.
And so our objective over the next two days is not simply to exchange views. It is intended to lay the foundations for a practical international road map. A road map that advances truthtelling, supports research and education, promotes memorialization, facilitates the restitution of cultural heritage, explores legal pathways, and creates opportunities for meaningful partnership between Africa, the diaspora, and the wider international community.
And in this endeavor, the African diaspora remains indispensable.
The descendants of those who endured enslavement are not mere observers of this process. They are the right holders whose experiences, knowledge, and aspirations must help shape our path ahead.
If the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolution marks an important moment of international recognition, our responsibility now is to ensure that this recognition translates into meaningful and sustained action.
And so today we must move from recognition to building the architecture for reparatory justice to ensure the momentum generated by resolution AE8250 is sustained and translated into practical outcomes. I'm pleased to announce the establishment of three global panels which will serve as the pillars of the next phase of this international effort. The first is a global advisory panel on reparatory justice comprising heads of states and government eminent leaders and public figures who will provide strategic guidance to advance international dialogue and cooperation on reparatory justice. The second is an expert panel on the restitution of cultural artifacts which will support efforts to facilitate the return of all cultural properties, archives, sacred objects and historical treasures to their rightful communities and countries of origin. And the third is a global legal panel on reparatory justice which will bring together distinguished jurists and legal scholars to explore legal pathways, deepen legal understanding and develop approaches that are consistent with international law, human dignity and justice.
These panels are not intended to replace the work of governments, regional organizations or international institutions.
Rather they intended to strengthen the work that work by providing intellectual, technical and policy support as the international community advances from recognition to implementation. And I believe that as my sister Mia said, the CARICOM template plan would serve as an important uh starting point for the work of these panels.
The distinguished guest, the work before us cannot be accomplished through declarations alone, nor can it be accomplished through a single conference or outcome document.
And so over the period of this conference, we must consider how best to advance a global post adoption framework that builds on the important work already underway across all regions and institutions. And in preparation for this conference, senior officials and technical experts have worked diligently to develop a draft framework to guide our discussions and inform our collective efforts. Their work is an important contribution to the task before us. And we must now strengthen collaboration among governments and partners, promote greater alignment among existing initiatives and identify pathways to advance the aspirations outlined in the resolution.
Tomorrow we shall gather at the Christianb Castle OSU and I invite all of you to join us for a traditional deba and a commemorative event marking the first joint observance of the Junth anniversary by Africa and the United States.
That occasion will offer an opportunity to honor the memory, celebrate resilience and reflect on the enduring connections between Africa and the diaspora.
It will remind us that while the experiences of people of African descent have unfolded across diverse societies and historical context, they remain connected by shared history whose consequences continue to resonate across generations and continents.
The UN General Assembly resolution marked an important moment of international recognition.
The responsibility now is to ensure that this recognition translates into meaningful and sustained action. And so the question before us is not whether history can be changed. History cannot be changed. The question is whether we have the courage to learn from it.
Whether we have the wisdom to confront history honestly. whether we have the determination to transform remembrance into responsibility and to transform responsibility into action.
Future generations will judge us not by the resolutions we adopted but by the progress we achieve. And so let them say that in Ara we chose truth over denial.
Let them say that in Ara we chose partnership over indifference.
And let them say that in Ara we chose justice over delay.
And let them say that when history called upon our generation to act, we stood up and we answered with courage. I thank you.
Justice. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. Joining the president of our republic on stage will be some members of the global advisory panel on reparatory justice who are here with us. They are leaders of countries with with historic ties to the transatlantic slave trade from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and some eminent personalities. Would you please make welcome leaders of countries with historic ties to the transatlantic slave trade from Africa, the president of the Republic of Liberia, His Excellency Joseph Muma Bukai, the President of the Republic of Namibia, Her Excellency Natumbu Nandi Dwata, The president of Synagal, His Excellency Baseru Yumay Jakar Se from the Caribbean, the Prime Minister of Babida. Her excellency Mia Amore Mley for eminent personalities from the CARICOM reparations commission.
Professor Sir Hillary Beckles, former Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Costa Rica, His Excellency FC Campbell Bar, Her Excellency, I beg your pardon, the chair of the AUR, Dr. Jane Mufamp Madi and together I give to you the global advisory panel on reparatory justice.
Please put your hands together for them.
Your excellencies.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, you may please be seated.
And now for the expert panel on restitution of cultural artifacts.
The director general of the reparation of anti antiquities department at the ministry of tourism and antiquities of Egypt, Mr. Shabban Abdel Gawad Hassan.
Thank you.
The Directorate of Restitutions of the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, Peru. Miss Evelyn Gilda Centurion Canino, the chief of curatoral affairs at the Museum of the African Diaspora, Smithsonian Affiliate of the United States of America. Miss Key Lo Lee, the executive officer, Heritage Resources Management, South African Heritage Resources Agency. Sara, Miss Mamak, Miss Mamako, Moren, Ki Exenia, Leuana, historian and member of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO routes of enslaved people's program Mauritius. Miss Vija Tok with cloning from Ghana. The director Menia Palace Museum Mr. Ivor Aimandrea, the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. Professor Samuel Inusu, professor of museiology and anthropology, former director of NCMM.
Abba Isa Tijani, associate professor of archaeology and ethno archaeology and head of the department of history of the faculty of letters and humanities of the shik antadop university of Dhaka, Mustafa Sal.
And finally, professor of art history, hold of the UNESCO chair on return and restitution, University of Abume Kavi Ddier Humende.
Finally, the legal panel for reparatory justice. Ambassador Pomi Corte is a renowned Ghanian diplomat and lawyer.
He's joined by renowned civil rights attorney, Mr. Benjamin Crump. Renowned Ghanian lawyer, Mr. Thio Sori renowned Khan lawyer Mr. Pachu Chikata from Britain, Mauritius Shagos Island. Philip Suns, a professor of international law, University of Miami School of Law.
Professor Charles Jalo, the fifth special reporter on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance.
Professor Tendai E. Auni, president of the Panaffrican Lawyers Union. Po Teodores Getu Tulu, director of programs and strategy at the Perigum Black Reference Institute and specialist in reparations Brazil. Beatatrice Nasimento, Jamaican Indigenous Rights Lawyer, Dr. Marcus Goofy, Jamaican attorney at law and founder of children of the mafa recognition, justice and development project, Natisia N. Border Singh. And finally, an advocate from Kingston, Jamaica, Makaya of the AUR.
Please, a round of applause for all these eminent persons. We would like to thank you all so very much for your attention. We know that it's been a very long and very very insightful morning, but we are very grateful for your time, your patience, your attention, and your participation. I'd like to make a few announcements regarding lunch and the the distribution of spaces within this hotel and other spaces. So for your attention, please, our president of the Republic of Ghana will have lunch with his colleagues here in the hotel Kinsky.
The foreign minister of foreign affairs will host all visiting ministers to launch at move and pick. Uh the aliones and coordinates the leazones will coordinate their movements and all ADCs, CPOS and protocol officers will be treated to lunch on the second floor of this hotel. All ambassadors, panelists and moderators will have lunch on the third floor of Campinsky and all participants will be treated to lunch on the first floor as well. We would like to thank you so very much for your time.
And now, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the national anthem of the Republic of Ghana and the AU anthem.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat.
If your voice is yours, let me hear you say, "Reparations, justice, restoration." Put your hands together and let's celebrate. Begins with me.
Please remain standing as the president of our republic together with his colleague ministers of heads of state and government take leave of us first and we all will be led out in sections.
Ghana police band We would like to say a big thank you to the former prime minister of Saints Vincent and Grenadines, his excellency Ralph Gonzalez for joining
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