{"id":771,"date":"2025-09-29T13:14:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T13:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/network.rvrising.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2025-09-29T13:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T13:14:42","slug":"african-leaders-demand-reparative-justice-at-un-general-assembly-decry-western-silence-on-colonial-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/world\/african-leaders-demand-reparative-justice-at-un-general-assembly-decry-western-silence-on-colonial-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"African leaders demand reparative justice at UN General Assembly, decry Western silence on colonial crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Coalition of Global South leaders escalates international campaign for reparations, proposing formal UN mechanisms<\/i><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span class=\"legendSpanClass\">ACCRA, Ghana<\/span>, <span class=\"legendSpanClass\">Sept. 27, 2025<\/span> \/PRNewswire\/ &#8212; The demand for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism took center stage at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, as a coalition of Global South leaders mounted an unprecedented call for reparative justice while criticizing Western nations for their continued silence on historical crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana&#8217;s President John Dramani Mahama, serving as the African Union Champion for Reparations, delivered a landmark address that framed the debate in stark moral terms. He declared the slave trade &#8220;the greatest crime against humanity,&#8221; referencing the forced displacement of over 12.5 million Africans to generate wealth for Western nations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We must demand reparations for the enslavement of our people and the colonisation of our land that resulted in the theft of natural resources,&#8221; President Mahama stated. He highlighted the historical irony that Western governments &#8220;happily paid reparations to former slave owners as compensation for the loss of their &#8216;property&#8217;\u2014the enslaved people themselves.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We recognise the value of our land and the value of our lives,&#8221; he declared.<\/p>\n<p>Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera reinforced the continental solidarity behind reparations, declaring that &#8220;the era of Africa&#8217;s dependence is over.&#8221; He called for a fundamental shift toward &#8220;sovereignty, not subordination; partnership, not exploitation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>President Touadera condemned the persistent global inequality, stating it is &#8220;unacceptable to see poverty worsening in Africa while wealth accumulates in the Northern countries,&#8221; while confirming his nation&#8217;s full support for the pan-African reparations initiative.<\/p>\n<p>Bolivian President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora outlined specific mechanisms for addressing historical injustices, proposing the establishment of a dedicated UN commission on reparations covering &#8220;slavery, apartheid, genocide, and colonialism.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This commission must establish effective mechanisms to restore historical justice,&#8221; President Arce explained, detailing three core components:\u00a0Financial reparations, Environmental restoration\u00a0and Restitution of stolen cultural property.<\/p>\n<p>He called for those responsible for historical crimes to contribute &#8220;billions of dollars into a reparations fund&#8221; and urged unity between the African Union and CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) in confronting colonialism&#8217;s lasting effects.<\/p>\n<p>A consistent theme across all presentations was profound disappointment with the Global North&#8217;s engagement on reparative justice. Leaders expressed unanimous frustration that Western countries continue to avoid meaningful dialogue on the issue, demonstrating what they characterized as a deliberate unwillingness to acknowledge historical responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p>This coordinated stance at the UN General Assembly represents a significant escalation in the international reparations movement, signaling that former colonial powers can no longer sideline these demands on the global stage.<\/p>\n<p><i>The statements were delivered during the general debate of the 80th UN General Assembly session.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Photo &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/mma.prnewswire.com\/media\/2783629\/Ghana_s_President_John_Dramani_Mahama.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/mma.prnewswire.com\/media\/2783629\/Ghana_s_President_John_Dramani_Mahama.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>SOURCE Pan-African People<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>This release is auto-published via PR Newswire; our journal is not responsible for the content.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/pan-african-people-african-leaders-demand-reparative-justice-at-un-general-assembly-decry-western-silence-on-colonial-crimes-302568833.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coalition of Global South leaders escalates international campaign for reparations, proposing formal UN mechanisms ACCRA, Ghana, Sept. 27,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,7],"tags":[237],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pr-newswire","category-world","tag-pan-african-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rvrising.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}