By Abdulsamad Abdulmalik
The United Nations General Assembly is set to vote on Wednesday on a draft resolution seeking to designate the transatlantic African slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity,” in what advocates have described as a significant step towards justice and historical reckoning.
President of Ghana, John Mahama, who has been a leading voice within the African Union on slavery reparations, visited the United Nations headquarters to rally support for the proposed resolution.
Addressing the UN on Tuesday, Mahama described the move as “historic,” noting that it provides an opportunity for the global community to acknowledge the suffering of over 12.5 million Africans subjected to centuries of enslavement.
According to him, the resolution would enable the world to “collectively bear witness to the plight” of millions whose “homes, communities, names, families, hopes, dreams, futures and lives were stolen” over a 400-year period.
He further described the initiative as “a safeguard against forgetting,” while criticising recent moves in the United States to restrict the teaching of slavery, racism and segregation in schools.
The draft text declares “the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity,” while also highlighting the enduring legacy of slavery, including persistent racial discrimination and neo-colonial structures.
Also speaking, the African Union’s Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Development, Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah, said clearly defining such atrocities removes ambiguity from historical records.
“To name these atrocities clearly is to remove the last veils of ambiguity from the historical record,” she said, adding that the slave trade was not accidental but the result of deliberate policies whose impacts still shape global inequalities.
The resolution also calls for restorative justice measures from countries historically involved in the slave trade.
Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said nations responsible for the transatlantic slave trade, including European countries and the United States, should take steps toward restitution.
He suggested the return of looted African artefacts and sustained efforts to address structural racism, noting that compensation for affected communities could also be considered.
Responding to concerns from some member states that the resolution may create a “hierarchy of suffering,” Ablakwa clarified that the intention is not to diminish other historical atrocities.
“We are not ranking suffering,” he said, stressing that describing the slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity is not meant to introduce comparisons but to recognise its scale and enduring consequences.
