Western countries increase support for slavery reparations, Ghana says

Ghana, which has led a ​campaign for reparations for the nearly four-century-long trans-Atlantic ​slave trade, said on Wednesday ‌that support ​is growing among Western countries for the effort.

The campaign's first focus is on restitution of looted artifacts, Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told ‌an event on reparatory justice co-hosted by Ghana, Germany and France on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. Later stages could include formal apologies, debt relief and financial compensation under a 19-point plan ‌adopted by the African Union and the Caribbean Community Commission on Reparatory Justice at a conference in ‌Ghana in June.

The UN passed a resolution in March recognizing trans-Atlantic slavery as "the gravest crime against humanity" with 123 votes in favor and three — from the US, Israel and Argentina — against. Fifty-two other countries, including European Union members and the UK, ⁠abstained. Since ​then, many European countries ⁠have expressed their support, he said. "Virtually all the European countries that abstained during the vote have reached out and have said ⁠they are going to work with us on this journey," Ablakwa said.

The UK and Portugal have offered support, ​and the US has also said it is willing to work with the Ghana-led effort, Ablakwa ⁠said. France, Germany and the Netherlands have pledged their willingness to return artifacts, he added.

"Restitution is very important to this journey...These artifacts ⁠ought ​to be returned to the motherland," the minister said. About 12.5 million Africans were enslaved and transported across the Atlantic between the 16th and 19th centuries, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. They ⁠were taken to South America, the Caribbean and North America to labor on plantations and in mines. This ⁠generated vast wealth ⁠that fueled development of Western powers while causing enduring economic and social harm.

Portugal and Britain were responsible for transporting more than 70% of all enslaved Africans across ‌the Atlantic, ‌according to the database.