Ghana has welcomed a landmark report by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which affirms that States have obligations to provide reparatory justice for the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel slavery.
The Committee’s report provides authoritative guidance on the obligations of States under the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, marking what it describes as a significant “paradigm shift” in the international approach to reparations.
According to Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the report makes clear that the argument that slavery and the trafficking of enslaved Africans were lawful at the time they occurred cannot be used to avoid present-day obligations relating to reparatory justice.
Ghana says the report reinforces the legal foundation for the country’s continued advocacy for reparations and follows the adoption of a landmark Ghana-led United Nations resolution recognising the transatlantic enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.
The development comes as President John Dramani Mahama continues to advance Ghana’s reparations agenda at the continental and international levels. President Mahama recently presented a comprehensive report on the implementation of the landmark UN resolution at the African Union Extraordinary Meeting in Angola.
As the African Union Champion for Reparations, President Mahama has also been leading efforts to build international support for restitution and reparatory justice.
Following the Next Steps Summit held in Accra, President Mahama is expected to host a high-level side event on restitution in New York during the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly next month.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ghana’s position is grounded in the conviction that historical crimes do not lose their significance with the passage of time.
“A crime does not rot,” the Ministry stated, stressing that the principles of justice, restitution and accountability remain relevant decades after the crimes were committed.
Ghana is expected to continue working with the African Union, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the African diaspora to advance the reparations agenda and translate international recognition into concrete action.
The Ministry maintained that the latest UN report strengthens the case for reparations, with recognition increasingly giving way to obligation.
“Justice does not expire with time,” the Ministry said.
