Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (Ghana) on the Adoption of the Resolution on Trafficking of Enslaved Africans - General Assembly Media Stakeout

Hello, colleagues of the media. Friends, thank you for waiting and being patient for the vote to come through. I now want to call to the microphone the distinguished Foreign Minister of Ghana, Hon. Samuel Okujato Ablakwa. Minister, thank you.

Thank you very much. Our friends from the media, good afternoon. Today, the international community has taken a significant, considerate and historic step forward by adopting this landmark resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans and the racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. With the adoption of this resolution, resolution A80L48, we have not simply passed a text. We have affirmed a truth.

We have chosen remembrance over silence, dignity over erasure, and shared humanity over division. We have advanced the course of justice, and we have done that so emphatically. Those who voted in favor, 123 member states of the United Nations, 52 abstained, and only three voted against. This is an emphatic victory for justice. And our ancestors, Africans and all people of African descent, are today honored that our humanity and our dignity have been restored.

Let me, on behalf of the African group, express our profound appreciation to all member States who supported this resolution. We wish to thank those who engaged in this consideration in a spirit of dialogue, reflection and good faith. We acknowledge that views differed during this process, and we note the positions taken by delegations that were not in a position to support the resolution at this time. The adoption of this text is not an arrival at a destination, but rather a major step in our ongoing journey and collective conversation for reparatory justice. We remain committed to continued engagement with all member states in the shared spirit of cooperation.

Yesterday, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana, who initiated this landmark resolution, talked about the importance of language, how it shapes our understanding of the past and our vision for the future. Today, through this resolution, the world has spoken with clarity and truth. We have affirmed that the trafficking of enslaved Africans and their racialized chattel enslavement is the gravest crime against humanity. A crime whose scale, structure and enduring consequences demand recognition at the highest level of our shared global conscience so that we can move forward in healing and in preventing such a crime from ever happening again. This resolution is not about apportioning blame across generations or nations.

It is not about reopening old wounds. It is about ensuring that those wounds are neither forgotten nor denied. It is about creating space for truth, for education, for and for a more honest global conversation that allows us to move forward together with greater understanding. History, as we know, is rarely simple. It is layered.

It is Complex and at times, uncomfortable. This resolution does not deny that complexity. It does not ignore the many dimensions of historical experience. Rather, it recognizes that even within complexity, there are moments in history that stand apart. Moments defined by their scale, their systemization, and their impact on humanity.

To acknowledge this is not to diminish any other history. It is to deepen our collective moral awareness. What we have achieved today helps all of us in our renewed commitment to remembrance, so that future generations inherit truth, not silence. To education, so that history is taught with honesty and integrity to dialogue, so that differences in perspective become opportunities for understanding and to cooperation, so that we address the enduring legacies of history in ways that unite rather than divide. The resolution also opens the door for continued global engagement on reparatory justice, not as a narrow or transactional concept, but as a broader framework for healing, restoration and partnership.

It also calls for further actions within our respective states. We therefore urge every member state to consider carefully the actions it must take to ensure inclusive and good faith dialogue on reparatory justice. The work of justice must does not end with remembrance. The racialized systems that adversely shaped our world must yield to a system that does not distinguish between our common humanity and which seeks for the interests of all peoples in a fair, just and equitable manner. Let me conclude with this reflection.

We cannot change history, but we can change how we remember it. And in doing so, we can change what we carry forward. Today. The world has chosen to remember, with purpose, justice and equity. Let that purpose guide us toward a future that is more just, more inclusive, and more profoundly human.

I would like to thank our negotiating team, staff of the Ministry of Foreign affairs, the staff of our mission in New York, in Geneva and in Addis Ababa. And I would like to thank especially our President, His Excellency, John Ramani Mahama, for his vision, his dynamism, his effectiveness with the UN Secretary General acknowledge today in their bilateral engagement, and for his humanity, his guidance has been absolutely phenomenal in bringing us to this historic moment. Ghana, Africa, and all people of African descent, and indeed all people of the world with good conscience, will eternally be grateful to President Mohammad for his leadership at this defining hour in global history.

I thank you very much for your indulgence and I shall now take your questions.

Notable among those that voted against the resolution was the United States. Were you disappointed by that vote? And also, if you can, comment on those that ABSTAIN More than 50 nations, how do you feel about those? Thank you.

So I would like to comment on

the reasons they gave. They sought to create the impression that the time for negotiations have been short. The President of Ghana served notice last year in September, when he delivered his address at the ATF session of the General Assembly. Immediately thereafter, we put together a broad based coalition, including experts, academics, researchers, historians from all regions of the world and we commenced negotiations.

In the history of the United nations, this has been a resolution that has gone through so many rounds of consultations. And even the duration for this consultation, each consultation, this standard practice at the UN is that it takes one and a half hours. We allocated three hours twice the time and had multiple rounds of negotiations.

So there are some that to us it is clear that even if we gave them 50 years, they would say that the time is not enough. But we can no longer wait. September we will be commemorating hundred years since the last slavery was abolished. Hundred years, and yet there has been no justice a whole century.

So we cannot keep waiting for those who do not want to reckon, who do not want to come to the table with urgency and with acknowledgement that this is a matter that can no longer be swept under the carpet. So we disagree with the notion that there was no time for negotiations. Secondly, the claim they have made that we are seeking to create a hierarchy of crimes.

We have stated count clearly that it is not about hierarchy. We are only speaking to a historical fact. Never in the history of mankind have we had such a systemic crime. We took over three centuries, more than 300 years, with its consequences still lingering onto this day, manifesting in racism, in structural inequality. So we are talking about the contextual framing of what has happened, not about ranking crimes.

And we made that very clear. So we are clear in our minds that some are just deliberately stonewalling and introducing red herring. But what is fundamental, which nobody can deny, is that more than 12.5 million people were forcibly removed from the continent. More than 3 million people died, were tossed into the transatlantic ocean, which is a mass grave site. And in our country, Ghana, we are currently UNESCO has certified that the country with the highest number of slave forts and castles, we are living witnesses on a daily basis.

When we go into those castles and forts and we see the door of no return, we break down. My daughter, Indiver, on an excursion only last week broke down and asked me, daddy, what did we do wrong and why has there been no justice? I had no answers for my 14 year old daughter. So we live with these experiences on a daily basis and we live with the structural consequences. And that is what this is about.

All those other matters about ranking, about time, about more space for Negotiations, we believe that they are just red herrings and it is not a demonstration of good faith so far as the pursuit of justice in this matter is concerned.

Minister, one of the key reasons raised by the United States, for which is India abstaining, is the lack of clarity on who is the recipient of the reparatory justice. What is your response to that?

That is surprising because we have in this resolution talked about frameworks we should put in place that will take care of the consequences. We all know that the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade has been the lack of opportunity, discrimination, the degradation of people of color. So we have said, let's have frameworks that will serve as endowment funds to support education, to support empowerment, to support skills training, capital for entrepreneurs and all of that. And we have made clear that African leaders or Caribbean leaders are not looking for money. It goes against our conscience to seek to profit from this.

We don't want any payments made to us directly. We are talking about causes to. To deal with the structural inequalities. And we are also talking about the return of artifacts to the continent. It's all in the resolution.

There are thousands of artifacts from Egypt all the way to the Ashanti kingdom in Ghana. Those artifacts should not be returned on piecemeal as and when those who are in custody of those artifacts are in a good mood. So we have outlined what must be done and to whom these redress should be addressed to. So again, it is totally wrong for a claim to be made that there is no clarity about who benefits from reparatory justice.

In the General Assembly. I know you're busy, so I'll make it quick. What message does this resolution that has now been adopted send to other people outside Africa right now that are fighting for repertory justice?

This resolution sends a very clear message that the international community would no longer tolerate impunity, that the international community stands for justice, that the international community and

our multilateral system we have erected. No matter how long it takes, the day of reckoning will come. And so all of us, as leaders should be mindful of our actions and our policies that once we violate the rights of others, once we engage in impunity in acts of injustice, the day of reckoning will come. To me, that is a very, very profound message that the UN is sending to the world today.

Let me take the last one.

Stephanie Caravouche, N.Y. did you have, in this process, did you have any contact with African American leaders here in this country, especially in Congress? Did you, you know, did you have any contact?

Yes, we did we did. I personally met with the Congressional Black Caucus.

I met with the naacp. I met with the nan,

which is led by Reverend Al Shupton. And I am delighted to note that following our meetings, they all publicly endorsed this draft resolution. The Congressional Black Caucus actually wrote to the US Ambassador here to make sure that he votes in favor of this resolution. I'm sure he's really in trouble with the Congressional Black Caucus, 62 congressmen who urged him to vote positively, and he's defied them.

I don't want to be in his shoes today. And there was also a statement of endorsement yesterday from naacp. And I also note that a lot of black members of Parliament, particularly in the House of Commons, the MP Bell Ribeiro, she has also done a phenomenal job in mobilizing the House of Commons in support of this resolution.

So we've had a very broad based coalition and we thank them very much for the support, the pressure that they all brought to bear. That is what has culminated in this victory. So it's a collective victory.

And collectively, we must all take credit for this victory.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. We'll have more opportunities to interact. Thank you.

Have a great day. Good.