Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has expressed profound gratitude to the United Nations and the 123 member states that voted in favour of the resolution declaring the Transatlantic Slave Trade as the gravest crime against humanity.
In a landmark vote, the United Nations adopted Resolution A/80/L.48, declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement as the gravest crime against humanity. Despite dissenting votes from the United States, Argentina, and Israel, the resolution passed, marking what many observers describe as a historic moment in the global pursuit of reparatory justice.
Ablakwa described the outcome as a victory for reparatory justice rather than for Africa alone. The countries that voted against the resolution argued that the text was problematic and appeared to introduce a ranking of crimes against humanity. However, Ablakwa emphasized that the vote represented a significant step toward restoring historical truth and dignity.
He noted that the resolution restores dignity to the estimated 12.5 million Africans who were trafficked across the Atlantic and forced to build foreign economies under brutal conditions.
“We are immensely and eternally grateful to the UN and all 123 Member States who voted emphatically for Ghana’s resolution, and we express limitless appreciation to our broad coalition of people of good conscience across the world. The humanity, dignity and respect of our ancestors and Africans everywhere are being restored,” Ablakwa stated.
The Foreign Affairs Minister also expressed appreciation to several organizations and partners that contributed to drafting the resolution, including the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus, CARICOM, the Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, legal experts, and other global partners, whose contributions he described as phenomenal.
He further commended President John Dramani Mahama for his leadership and courage in spearheading the African bloc and securing overwhelming support from UN member states.
“I thank our technical experts and global partners for reparatory justice for their phenomenal output. God bless President John Mahama for his extraordinary leadership and unwavering commitment to this historic process,” he added.
For more than 400 years, millions of Africans were forcibly taken from their homes, shackled, and transported across the Atlantic to work in cotton fields and sugar and coffee plantations under brutal conditions. Stripped of their humanity and identities, they endured generations of exploitation whose consequences persist today, including systemic racism, inequality, and discrimination.
The resolution emphasized “the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised 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 labour, property and capital.”
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