African Group at UN Briefs Media Ahead of Landmark UN Resolution on Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity

Press briefing by AU / Africa Group, led by Ghana, on the proposed resolution to be tabled and considered in the GA on Wednesday, 25th March during the GA commemorative event marking the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

• Categories: Media / Press Conferences
• Video Length: 00:26:47
• Production Date: 24 March 2026
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: S.W. KUMAH
• Corporate Name: AFRICAN UNION - AU
• Subject Topical: TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE; SLAVERY; INTERNATIONAL DAYS; CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY; TRANSNATIONAL CRIME; ORGANIZED CRIME; HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS; CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS; REPARATION; COMMEMORATION; DECLARATIONS; HUMAN RIGHTS
• Geographic Subject: GHANA; AFRICA; ATLANTIC OCEAN; NORTH AMERICA; ANGOLA
• MAMS Id: 3547273
• Parent Id: 3547273

Description

Permanent Representative from Angola to the United Nations Francisco José da Cruz

Permanent Representative from Ghana Samuel Kumah

Ahead of landmark UN Resolution on the enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity, Ghanaian Ambassador Samuel Yao Kumah today (23 Mar) said the resolution “does not rank suffering, nor does it attempt to create a legal hierarchy of crimes against humanity.”

Speaking on behalf of the African Group at the United Nations, Kumah told reporters in New York that the initiative “did not arise suddenly, nor is it the undertaking of a single mission,” but instead “is the result of a clear continental mandate, grounded in decision, taken at the highest political level of Africa's multilateral institution, the African Union.”

He noted that during the 2025 General Assembly general debate, the President of Ghana, John Mahama “announced the country's intention to lead the tabling of a draft resolution on the declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as Gravest Crime Against Humanity.”

The resolution, Kumah said, “advances a simple but profound proposition. That trafficking and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans was a world breaking event. The moment when humanity itself was reorganised into a global hierarchy of race, labour, property and capital and helped construct the global economic and racial order whose legacies continue to shape our world today. “

He acknowledged “the concern has been raised that describing the trafficking and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity creates a hierarchy among historical atrocities” and said, “the interpretation is misplaced,” as “every atrocity, genocide, apartheid, colonial violence and other crimes recognised under international law remains unequivocally condemned,” and the resolution “simply identifies the historical mechanism that fundamentally restructured the world.”

The Ambassador said, “supporting this resolution is not an act of accusation, it is an act of recognition. It is an affirmation that the international community possesses the moral confidence to name historical realities and learn from them.”

He said, “the trafficking and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans shaped the world we have inherited. Acknowledging this truth honours not only the memory of those who suffered, but also the universal principles of dignity, equality and justice upon which this organisation was founded.”

Earlier today, Secretary-General António Guterres addressed a General Assembly event marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and said that many of the solutions to confront racial discrimination are being weakened as some governments dismantle anti-racist policies and practices and leaders try to rewrite history.