PRESS STATEMENT

April 4, 2026

GRACO-Global Human Rights Monitors Commends UN Vote Designating Slavery As Gravest Crime Against Humanity, Calls For Urgent Steps Towards Reparative Justice

Grassroots Center for Rights & Civic Orientation (GRACO) and Global Human Rights Monitors closely followed the March 25 vote at the United Nations General Assembly, during which member states adopted a resolution depicting the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and racialised chattel slavery as the gravest crime against humanity. For us, this historic vote is yet another reminder that the quest for justice and human dignity for enslaved Africans remain alive. Although a non-binding vote, the 123 States, which voted in favour of the resolution sponsored by Ghana demonstrated clearly that the dignity of Africans is sacrosanct, irrespective of the derisive opposing views of countries, which benefited economically from chattel slavery. Therefore, the 52 countries which voted against the resolution, and those who abstained have demonstrated their lack of commitment to ensuring justice for the victims of slavery. Posterity will judge all such countries harshly for their denial and refusal to own up to their complicity in the most degrading treatment of fellow human beings. Those countries and voices, which oppose reparative justice for the crime of slavery remind the world that they profited from the blood and sweat of African slaves yet are unwilling to ensure restitution and justice.

The extraction of millions of Africans and their forced transportation to plantations in the New World for four centuries, is truly the highest crime ever committed against all of humanity. And it is a grave injustice humanity must address. Slavery does not merely belong to the past; it is a stain on the conscience of humankind. It is an irony that some of the countries, which voted against the resolution are the ones which were at the vanguard of reparation for the victims of the Holocaust. For instance, United States State Department data indicates that from “1945 to 2018, the German government paid approximately $86.8 billion in restitution and compensation to Holocaust victims and their heirs.” Therefore, GRACO and Global Human Rights Monitors believe the principles, which underpinned the payment of reparations to the victims of the Holocaust should be applied in expanded measures for the purpose of reparation to the heirs of enslaved Africans, who were abducted from their homelands and transported across the Atlantic in the course of four centuries.

In terms of the efforts to table this resolution and the voting outcome, GRACO commends the President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama. The Ghanaian leader has earned his place in the pantheon of African statesmen by the way he courageously moved forward with this resolution, despite the derisive comments of states, which benefited economically from slave labour. Notwithstanding the non-binding status of the resolution, the Ghanaian delegation at the UN, served as the prime catalyst. The consensus derived from the Africa group at the UN General Assembly, which ensured the resolution is voted on, is a remarkable demonstration of African and Diaspora leadership and solidarity. GRACO applauds the mobilisation of diplomatic talents, experience and resources, which culminated in the clear-headed and courageous UN General Assembly resolution. Equally worthy of note is role played by the African Union (AU), which has kept the issue of reparative justice alive in broader continental conversations about Africa’s development trajectory.

At the heart of this vote is the dignity of the African. GRACO and Global Human Rights Monitors make no mistake about the fact that if the depravities and injustices of slavery are allowed to stand with no measures of accountability, the indirect message is that there is a free rein for more of such violations. There can be no mistaken the fact that the same racist ideas and philosophies, which were used to justify and enable slavery, are still very much around. The entire world can see these manifesting in the ultra-nationalism, irredentism and the notion might is right. Those ideas are clearly apparent in the disregard for the so-called rules-based international order, which was premised upon respect for international rules and multilateral cooperation. Therefore, the quest for reparative justice, is not just about payment of monies to affected survivors, heirs and communities. Reparative justice is also about acknowledging the monumental crimes against Africans. It is about the restoration of the dignity of those violently denied their place as human beings. At its heart, reparatory justice seeks to make amends for past wrongs and to provide redress for the physical, material and moral damage inflicted on individuals, groups and nations. GRACO and Global Human Rights Monitors believe committing to addressing the historic wrongs and injustices of slavery will help address its various mutations in the present day. As such, the vote at the UN General Assembly is one of the important steps to for humanity to acknowledge and document the inhumane realities of victims of slavery suffered in the hands of perpetrators centuries ago.

GRACO and Global Human Rights Monitors make no mistake about the fact that slavery and all the depravities it represents, are not just merely “mistakes of the past.” The excuses being given by countries, which derived enormous economic benefits from slavery as to why nothing should be done about it, are lame. Those engaging in deflection are obfuscation over the centuries-long assault on human dignity, are basically running away from their historic responsibilities. It is therefore important that African and Diaspora States should stay the course, and not be distracted. The posturing by those who engineered and benefited heavily from slavery cannot erase the quest for reparative justice. The spirits and souls of the victims who were brutalised through forced extraction and labour will continually cry out for justice.

Signed:

Armsfree Ajanaku

Executive Director, GRACO and Lead Convener, Global Human Rights Monitors