Ghana seeks formal UN acknowledgement of African slave trade injustice

John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana, addresses a press conference on the theme 'Ancestral Debt, Modern Justice: Africa's Unified Case for Reparations' during the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, on 15 February, 2026. AFP - MARCO SIMONCELLI

Ghana will submit a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly in March to designate the African slave trade as "the most serious crime against humanity," Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama announced on Sunday during the African Union Summit in Ethiopia.

The resolution is to be submitted to the United Nations member states in March, as a "declaration on the trafficking of enslaved Africans and the racialised enslavement of Africans, described as the most serious crime against humanity," said the Ghanaian head of state, whose country was the first on the continent to gain independence in 1957.