(CARICOM)- Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) has described the adoption by the 80th UN General Assembly of the Resolution designating the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity, as a “historic, landmark decision.”
Championed by His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana, who leads on reparatory justice in the African Union, the Resolution was presented for adoption at an annual special sitting of the UN General Assembly to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade on 25 March at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Resolution was adopted with a majority vote of 123 in favour, 3 against and 52 abstentions. All Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States voted in favour of the Resolution.
As a renowned Caribbean historian and leading global advocate for reparatory justice, Professor Beckles expressed his delight at the outcome of the vote which he said was potentially a “game changer” at the United Nations, providing a stronger platform to strategically advance coordinated diplomatic strategy to address reparations for Africans and people of African Descent through this critical intergovernmental body.
“Under the leadership of the African Union and CARICOM, 123 countries spoke resoundingly with one voice, affirming the grave injustice, recognising the suffering and crimes against humanity committed against Africans for over four hundred years,” he said.
Professor Beckles also observed that “the adoption of the Resolution on the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade is a victory for the millions of Africans who endured the horrors of chattel enslavement and who always resisted the negation of their humanity and treatment as chattel or property.”
The groundbreaking resolution designates African enslavement as “the gravest crime against humanity” in view of its “scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences…”; and calls on Member States to support reparations, including the return of stolen artefacts. The Resolution also encourages Member States to implement initiatives for research, memorialization and education, and develop frameworks for dialogue, cooperation and action on reparatory justice.
Over 15 million Africans were trafficked across the Atlantic to the Americas, from the 16th to 19th centuries, by enslavers backed by monarchies, banks and private investors in 10 European countries. In the Middle Passage, 2 million Africans perished. Britain trafficked 5.5 million enslaved Africans to its colonies in the Caribbean and at emancipation in 1834, only 800,000 remained – a survival rate of 15%. Enslaved Africans were subject to harsh punishments, deemed chattel or property and denied their freedom, compensation for their labour and their humanity.
The historic adoption of the Resolution is expected to provide momentum ahead of the observance by the United Nations of the 25th anniversary of the groundbreaking Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in September 2001 in Durban, South Africa.
