President John Dramani Mahama will table a landmark resolution before the United Nations General Assembly in March, seeking global recognition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade as the gravest crime against humanity.
The president announced this on Sunday in his report to the 39th Assembly of Heads of State and Government, in his capacity as the African Union Champion for Advancing the Cause of Justice and the Payment of Reparations.
President Mahama’s draft UN resolution to the AU Assembly has been adopted.
According to Mahama, “all peoples of African descent have been waiting for this day. The truth cannot be buried. The legal foundations are sound; the moral imperative is undeniable.”
The resolution, first announced during the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly in September 2025, represents a culmination of year-long efforts to elevate Africa’s reparatory justice agenda on the global stage.
President Mahama reported significant progress in establishing continental mechanisms to pursue reparations for the legacies of transatlantic enslavement, colonialism, and apartheid. These include the AU Coordination Team on Reparations, the AU Committee of Experts on Reparations, and a Reference Group of Legal Experts.
“This marked a historic turning point in the life of our Union, not as a symbolic or commemorative act, but as a strategic and international commitment,” he said, referring to the AU’s designation of 2025 as the Year of Justice for Africans through Reparations.
The President urged member states to establish national reparations commissions, engage formally with historical perpetrator states, and support the proposed Decade of Reparations to ensure sustained continental commitment beyond the commemorative year.
“Reparatory justice will not be handed to us. Like political independence, it must be asserted, pursued and secured through determination and unity,” Mahama declared.
The AU has engaged with UNESCO and the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent throughout 2025, ensuring Africa’s reparations agenda shapes global discourse on cultural restitution, historical truth-telling, and emerging issues, including artificial intelligence.
Major gatherings from Accra to Madrid, culminating in the 9th Pan-African Congress in Lomé, have “fundamentally reframed the global narrative,” presenting reparations as forward-looking instruments for justice and development rather than backwards-looking claims.
President Mahama called on the current generation of African leadership to be “remembered not for hesitation, but for courage in advancing justice, restoring dignity, securing restitution and shaping a future grounded in truth.”
The March presentation to the UN General Assembly will mark a pivotal moment in the continental campaign for global recognition and redress of historical injustices against African peoples.
