Ghana demands compensation for slavery in landmark UN vote

Slavery was the "most horrendous crime that took place in the history of mankind", Ghana's foreign minister has told the BBC ahead of a landmark vote at the UN General Assembly.

Member states are set to vote on a resolution - led by Ghana - to recognise the transatlantic slave trade as "the gravest crime against humanity".

The proposal urges UN member states to consider apologising for the slave trade and contributing to a reparations fund.

The resolution is likely to face resistance, as states like the UK have long rejected paying reparations, saying today's institutions cannot be held responsible for past wrongs.

But the proposal's advocates, which include the African Union and the Caribbean Community, say it is a step towards healing and justice.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana's foreign minister, told the BBC's Newsday programme: "We are demanding compensation - and let us be clear, African leaders are not asking for money for themselves.

"We want justice for the victims and causes to be supported, educational and endowment funds, skills training funds."

The campaign for reparations has gained significant momentum in recent years - "reparatory justice" was the African Union's official theme for 2025 and Commonwealth leaders have jointly called for dialogue on the matter.

Ablakwa also said that, with the resolution, Ghana was not ranking its pain above anyone else's, but simply documenting a historical fact.

Between 1500 and 1800, around 12-15 million people were captured in Africa and taken to the Americas where they were forced to work as slaves. It is estimated that over two million people died on the journey.

Ablakwa told the BBC that the "structures" and " inequalities" created by slavery still persist.

"Many generations continue to suffer the exclusion, the racism because of the transatlantic slave trade which has left millions separated from the continent and impoverished," he said.

Ghana, one of the main gateways for the trade, has long been a leading advocate for reparations.

Forts, where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were once held under inhuman conditions, remain standing along the West African country's coast.

The resolution also calls for cultural artefacts stolen during the colonial era to be returned to their countries of origin.

"We want a return of all those looted artefacts, which represent our heritage, our culture and our spiritual significance. All those artefacts looted for many centuries into the colonial era ought to be returned," Ablakwa said.

Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama told the UN on Tuesday that the resolution was "historic" and "a safeguard against forgetting".

He also criticised Donald Trump's administration for "normalising the erasure of black history".

Since returning to power, the US president has targeted American cultural and historical institutions for promoting what he calls "anti-American ideology".

Trump's orders have led to moves such as the restoration of Confederate statues and the dismantling of a slavery exhibit in Philadelphia.

"These policies are becoming a template for other governments as well as some private institutions," Mahama said.

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