Ghana is set to take a historic step on the global stage as President John Dramani Mahama prepares to table a landmark resolution at the United Nations General Assembly declaring the Transatlantic Slave Trade as the gravest crime against humanity.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, March 19, 2026, the resolution will be formally presented on March 25, 2026, aligning with the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The Ministry stated that “all is set for the historic tabling” of the resolution, which fulfills a pledge made by President Mahama during his address to the UN General Assembly last year.
Ghana, acting in its role as African Union Champion on Reparations, is spearheading the initiative in collaboration with the African Union and the Caribbean Community and Common Market, alongside people of African descent globally.
The proposed resolution, titled “Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity,” seeks to formally recognize the historical injustice and its enduring global impact.
Explaining the significance, the Ministry noted that the declaration is justified “by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to shape socio-economic realities and structural inequalities across the world.”
If adopted, it would mark the first comprehensive UN resolution on slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the organization’s 80-year history.
The Ministry emphasized that such a move would “preserve historical truth as a foundation for justice and reconciliation and respond to the call for meaningful engagement on reparatory justice, accountability and healing.”
The statement further stressed the broader implications of the resolution, noting that “naming this reality is not only symbolic but the beginning of a reckoning with the structural inequalities that underpin debt asymmetries, development gaps, climate vulnerability and global financial governance.”
Ahead of the tabling, a series of commemorative events will take place in New York on March 24, including a wreath-laying ceremony at the African Burial Ground and a high-level meeting on reparatory justice at the UN.
Following the expected adoption, Ghana says it will continue to champion reparatory justice under the African Union’s Decade of Action on Reparations and African Heritage (2026–2036).
The Ministry also expressed gratitude to key stakeholders, including the African Union Commission, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, CARICOM, and other international bodies, experts, and activists whose “inspiring collective effort and solidarity” have contributed to the initiative.
Ghana has called on all UN member states to support the resolution, urging them “to be counted on the right side of history and justice.”
