Keypoints:
- Ghana hosts UN reparations event September 23
- Three global panels to report progress
- Accra process shifts campaign towards implementation
GHANA will take its global reparatory justice campaign back to the United Nations on September 23, when three high-level bodies established after a landmark conference in Accra are expected to report on progress towards restitution, legal redress and broader measures addressing the legacy of African enslavement.
The high-level side event in New York comes six months after the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/80/250 and three months after Ghana convened its Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice. According to Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting is intended to move the campaign beyond recognition of historical injustice towards practical international action.
From recognition to action
The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/80/250 on March 25, declaring ‘the trafficking of enslaved Africans and the system of racialized chattel enslavement of Africans’ to constitute ‘the gravest crime against humanity’.
The resolution was adopted by 123 votes to three, with 52 abstentions.
The vote marked the culmination of months of diplomacy, with Africa Briefing reporting on Ghana’s UN breakthrough after the resolution secured overwhelming backing.
The Ghana Foreign Ministry said the resolution emerged from a coordinated effort involving the African Union, CARICOM and the African diaspora, while Ghana played a prominent diplomatic role in advancing the initiative.
With the declaration secured, the ministry said Ghana posed what it described as the critical question: ‘What next?’
That question became the organising principle for the High-Level Next Steps Conference on Reparatory Justice, held in Accra from June 17 to 19.
The gathering brought together political leaders, diplomats, scholars, legal experts and civil society representatives to consider how international recognition of historical injustice could be translated into practical measures.
‘Our journey, therefore, does not end here,’ the Foreign Ministry said as it outlined the next phase of Ghana’s campaign.
Three panels take centre stage
The Accra conference 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.
Their creation marked the beginning of a more structured phase of the campaign, with the bodies expected to provide political, technical and legal guidance on how reparatory justice could be pursued internationally.
Africa Briefing previously reported on Ghana’s establishment of the three global reparations panels, which are now expected to present progress reports, findings and recommendations at the September 23 meeting.
The Foreign Ministry described the New York gathering as a ‘symbolic rebirth’, saying it would give the international community an opportunity to assess the momentum generated since the Accra conference.
The event will take place during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, placing Ghana’s reparatory justice campaign before world leaders and senior diplomats gathered in New York.
Restitution moves up agenda
Cultural restitution has emerged as one of the most visible strands of the wider reparations debate.
Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said in June that the Netherlands had signalled the return of about 2,000 catalogued artefacts to Ghana following discussions linked to the Accra conference.
Dutch authorities subsequently indicated, however, that established restitution procedures would still have to be followed before individual objects could formally be returned.
That distinction underlines one of the central challenges facing the reparatory justice campaign: turning expressions of political support into concrete legal and institutional outcomes.
The wider Accra commitments extended beyond cultural objects to legal remedies, apologies, education, economic measures, heritage restoration and institutional reform.
Ghana has sought to build momentum around these issues since securing international backing for the UN resolution earlier this year.
Africa Briefing reported on Ghana’s diplomatic push ahead of the UN vote, which brought renewed attention to reparations and historical justice within the multilateral system.
Ghana seeks wider global coalition
The Foreign Ministry says the September meeting is intended not only to present progress reports but also to widen international participation in the reparatory justice campaign.
‘We urge all nations to join us in this noble endeavour,’ the ministry said, calling for solidarity in pursuing ‘justice, restitution, and dignity for Africa and people of African descent worldwide’.
The ministry also described the event as an opportunity to ‘catalyze a global dialogue’ on how governments and international institutions should respond to the legacies of slavery and colonial exploitation.
The challenge will be translating such declarations into measures that governments, institutions and international bodies are prepared to implement.
The UN resolution itself does not establish a binding compensation mechanism, although it calls on member states to engage in dialogue on reparatory justice, including full and formal apologies, restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.
That makes the work of the legal, cultural restitution and advisory panels especially important in determining what practical steps might follow.
Their recommendations could help shape discussions on restitution, legal responsibility, institutional reform and possible forms of reparatory redress.
Ghana’s September 23 event will therefore provide an early measure of whether the reparatory justice campaign can move from historical recognition towards internationally coordinated action.
