Full Text Read Ghana S Un Resolution On Slavery That Defied The West

By Iddi Yire, GNA Accra, March 25, GNA – The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution tabled by President John Dramani Mahama recognising the transatlantic slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity. The resolution, championed by President Mahama in his capacity as the African Union Champion for Reparations, is expected to advance global efforts towards healing, justice and reparative action. A total of 123 countries voted in favour of the resolution, while the United States, Israel and Argentina voted against it.

Fifty-two countries abstained, including European Union member states and Britain. Presenting the motion, President Mahama said the draft resolution was the outcome of months of consultations and consensus-building among continental bodies, nations, scholars, experts and jurists. He said the process was aimed at forging a united front anchored on truth, compassion, moral conscience, remembrance, education and dialogue. “So today we come together in solemn solidarity to affirm truth and pursue a route to healing and reparative justice,” he said.

President Mahama noted that the adoption of the resolution would serve as a safeguard against historical amnesia and challenge the enduring scars of slavery. Quoting former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, he said: “With a great moral issue involved, neutrality does not serve righteousness.

For to be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong.” He also cited civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr, stating: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” “We travel this long road, each step guided by a desire to be better and to do better, each step bringing us closer to the kind of world we would want to leave for our children,” President Mahama said. Addressing delegates, he urged them to stand on the right side of history.

“Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right. “For the memory of the millions who suffered the indignity of the slave trade and those who continue to suffer racial discrimination. “Let our vote on this resolution restore their dignity and humanity,” he added. The resolution enables the global community to collectively acknowledge the suffering of millions of Africans affected by the transatlantic slave trade over four centuries.

The transatlantic slave trade, spanning the 15th to the 19th centuries, saw an estimated 18 million Africans forcibly captured and transported across the Atlantic. Historians indicate that millions more perished during violent raids, forced marches to coastal forts and the Middle Passage, while survivors endured generations of enslavement. The trade depopulated parts of Africa, disrupted social and political systems, weakened indigenous economies and entrenched structural inequalities whose effects continue to shape the continent’s development trajectory.

United Nations General Assembly resolutions, though not legally binding, carry strong moral and political authority, shaping global norms, influencing national policies and guiding international cooperation. GNA Edited by Beatrice Asamani Savage

People Also Asked

• FULL TEXT: Read Ghana's UN resolution on slavery that defied the West
• UN resolution urges reparations for slavery's 'historical wrongs'
• UN adopts Ghana's slavery resolution, defying resistance from US ...
• Ghana Leads Historic UN Vote Declaring Slave Trade the Gravest Crime ...
• UN General Assembly adopts Ghana's resolution recognising slavery as ...
• United Nations Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and ...