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STORY: UN / AFRICAN GROUP PRESSER
TRT: 03:12
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 MARCH 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
23 MARCH 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. Med shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Yao Kumah, Permanent Representative to the United Nations:
“This initiative did not arise suddenly, nor is it the undertaking of a single mission. It 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.”
5. Wide shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Yao Kumah, Permanent Representative to the United Nations:
“This initiative did not arise suddenly, nor is it the undertaking of a single mission. It 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.”
7. Med shot, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Yao Kumah, Permanent Representative to the United Nations:
“In September 2025, during the General Assembly debate of the eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly, the President of Ghana 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.”
9. Med shot, dais
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Yao Kumah, Permanent Representative to the United Nations:
“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. Respectfully, the interpretation is misplaced. First, the resolution does not rank suffering, nor does it attempt to create a legal hierarchy of crimes against humanity. Every atrocity, genocide, apartheid, colonial violence and other crimes recognised under international law remains unequivocally condemned. The resolution simply identifies the historical mechanism that fundamentally restructured the world.”
11. Wide shot, dais
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Samuel Yao Kumah, Permanent Representative to the United Nations:
“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. 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.”
13. Med shot, journalist
14. Wide shot, end of briefing
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.
