Source: Africa Publicity
President John Dramani Mahama has called for a new phase of global engagement on reparatory justice, urging the international community to move beyond acknowledgment of historical injustices towards meaningful action, truth-telling, and reconciliation.
Speaking at the opening of the Next Steps High-Level Consultative Conference on Reparatory Justice in Accra, President Mahama noted that the transatlantic slave trade remains one of the gravest crimes against humanity, with consequences that continue to shape societies, institutions, and inequalities across generations.
The President reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to advancing the global reparations agenda and announced the establishment of three international panels on reparatory justice, restitution of cultural artefacts, and legal pathways for redress to support the next phase of international engagement.
President Mahama emphasized that while today’s generation did not commit the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade, it bears a collective responsibility to address the enduring consequences of that history through justice, dialogue, remembrance, and partnership.
The conference brought together an unprecedented gathering of global leaders and dignitaries, including the Presidents of Senegal, Namibia, Liberia, and São Tomé and Príncipe; the Prime Minister of Barbados; the Vice President of Equatorial Guinea; the Speaker of the Algerian Parliament; ministers and senior representatives from more than 80 countries; and former President John Agyekum Kufuor.
The gathering marks a significant milestone in the global conversation on reparatory justice and reinforces Ghana’s leadership in promoting dialogue, healing, and international cooperation on issues arising from the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.
“Future generations will judge us not by the resolutions we adopted, but by the progress we achieved,” President Mahama stated.
