President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans for Ghana to host a high-level side event on reparatory justice during the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The initiative is aimed at strengthening international support for efforts to secure reparations for historical injustices against Africans and people of African descent.
President Mahama, who serves as the African Union Champion for Reparations, made the announcement in a Facebook post on Sunday, August 31, following his return from Luanda, Angola, where he briefed fellow African leaders at the 21st Extraordinary African Union Summit on progress in the global reparations campaign.
According to him, the upcoming UN event will allow Ghana to receive updates from the various panels established to advance the reparatory justice agenda.
“Ghana will host a high-level side event during the 81st UN General Assembly Session this September to receive progress reports from our established panels,” he said.
The President said he had invited heads of state and government to participate in the event as Ghana seeks to build a wider international coalition behind the campaign.
He said the initiative builds on a landmark UN General Assembly resolution on reparatory justice, which he noted was achieved through collaboration among the African Union, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the African Diaspora.
President Mahama said the resolution represented a significant step towards international recognition of the historical injustices linked to the enslavement of Africans.
He recalled that Ghana hosted the Next Steps Conference in Accra in June, where the scope of the campaign was expanded to include indentured labour as another historical injustice requiring attention.
He said the conference also resulted in the establishment of a High-Level Advisory Council on Reparatory Justice, a Global Experts Panel on the Restitution of Cultural Heritage and a Global Legal Panel on Reparatory Justice.
President Mahama noted that reparations, once regarded as a sensitive or taboo subject, had increasingly become part of international diplomatic discussions.
He pointed to developments including the return of looted African artefacts, changes to historical legislation such as France’s repeal of the Code Noir, and acknowledgements and commitments by international institutions as evidence of growing momentum.
“A topic once considered taboo is now reshaping global diplomacy,” he said.
The President reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to leading the push for justice, restitution and dignity for Africa and people of African descent across the world.
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