Ghana \u200bintends to propose a United Nations resolution recognising transatlantic slavery as \u200cthe “gravest crime in the history of humankind” and calling for reparations, and expects broad support despite resistance in Europe.<\/p>\n
The West African nation, a prominent advocate of\u00a0reparations, opens new tab on the continent, plans to \u200btable the proposal at the U.N. General Assembly, possibly as early \u200bas this month, its Foreign Ministry said in a statement to \u2060Reuters.<\/p>\n
The plan marks a new step in Africa’s efforts to seek accountability for \u200bhistorical injustices by former colonial powers, and the country hopes it will “enjoy the support \u200bof many member states”.<\/p>\n
“The proposed resolution seeks to recognise transatlantic slave trade as the gravest crime in the history of humankind, taking into account its scale, duration, legalisation and enduring consequences,” \u200bit said.<\/p>\n
While calls for reparations have\u00a0gained momentum\u00a0in recent years, there is also a\u00a0growing backlash.<\/p>\n
Several \u200bEuropean leaders have opposed even discussing the subject, with critics arguing today’s states and institutions \u200cshould not \u2060be held responsible for historical wrongs.<\/p>\n
Asked if it expected opposition, the ministry said: “A backlash against truth is one that we hope would not occur. Ghana is not seeking to reopen old wounds but to heal those wounds with truth.”<\/p>\n
PUSH FOR \u200bREPARATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n African and Caribbean nations \u200bhave been\u00a0seeking to \u2060establish\u00a0a special U.N. reparations tribunal, with lawyers noting previous tribunals had been created by resolution or by the Security \u200bCouncil.<\/p>\n The African Union (AU)\u00a0last year set out\u00a0to create a “unified vision” \u200bamong its \u206055 member states on what reparations may look like, from financial compensation and formal apologies to policy reforms. AU leaders endorsed the proposed resolution at a summit last \u2060month.<\/p>\n Member \u200bstates of the Caribbean Community, which has outlined\u00a0its \u200bown reparations plan, are also expected to support it.<\/p>\n “We remain optimistic that others would equally be able \u200bto do so,” the ministry said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ghana \u200bintends to propose a United Nations resolution recognising transatlantic slavery as \u200cthe “gravest crime in the history of humankind” and calling for reparations, and expects broad support despite resistance in Europe. The West African nation, a prominent advocate of\u00a0reparations, opens new tab on the continent, plans to \u200btable the proposal at the U.N. General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":11,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,34,27],"tags":[158,1462],"class_list":["post-20156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-society","category-west-africa","tag-ghana","tag-slavery-reparations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20158,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20156\/revisions\/20158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}