A new phase of global involvement on reparatory justice has been called for by President John Dramani Mahama, who has urged the international community to go beyond acknowledging historical injustices in favour of effective action, truth-telling, and reconciliation.
Speaking at the opening of the Next Steps High-Level Consultative Conference on Reparatory Justice in Accra, President Mahama stated that the transatlantic slave trade is still one of the most serious crimes against humanity, with repercussions that continue to influence institutions, societies, and inequality for generations to come.
In order to facilitate the next stage of international engagement, the President reiterated Ghana’s commitment to furthering the global reparations agenda and announced the creation of three international panels on reparatory justice, cultural artefact restitution, and legal avenues for redress.
Even if the current generation did not carry out the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, President Mahama stressed that it is our shared duty to address the long-lasting effects of that past through cooperation, justice, communication, and remembrance.
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 over 80 countries, and former President John Agyekum Kufuor were among the unprecedented international leaders and dignitaries gathered at the conference.
The event upholds Ghana’s leadership in fostering communication, reconciliation, and international collaboration on matters resulting from the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and represents an important turning point in the worldwide discourse on reparatory justice.
President Mahama declared, “Future generations will judge us not by the resolutions we adopted, but by the progress we achieved.”
Source: newsthemegh.com