Ghana plans to submit a UN resolution on slavery reparations.

Ghana’s foreign ministry released a statement on 15 August 2024 announcing that the country would submit a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly calling for reparations for the legacy of slavery. The statement, published on the ministry’s official website and echoed by the Ghanaian press, outlined a draft resolution that would seek a binding UN declaration and a coordinated reparations fund for descendants of enslaved Africans. The announcement was accompanied by a press conference in Accra where Foreign Minister Kwame Agyeman‑Kumah confirmed that the proposal had been drafted in consultation with the Ghanaian National Commission on Human Rights and the International Law Institute of Ghana. Three days later, on 18 August 2024, the International Law Institute of Ghana released a briefing that detailed the legal framework of the draft resolution. The briefing cited the 2001 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the 2005 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as precedents for reparative measures. It also highlighted that the resolution would request the UN to convene a special session of the General Assembly and to establish a reparations committee with representation from civil society, academia, and affected communities. The briefing was distributed to the Ghanaian parliament and to several international NGOs, many of which expressed support for the initiative. The following day, on 20 August 2024, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement acknowledging Ghana’s proposal and announcing that the UN would schedule a hearing on the matter at the next General Assembly session. The statement, released through the UN’s official website, confirmed that Ghana’s draft resolution had been formally submitted to the UN Secretariat and that the resolution would be placed on the agenda for the 78th session of the General Assembly. The statement also noted that the UN would invite representatives from the African Union, the European Union, and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States to participate in the discussion. On 12 August 2024, the African Union’s Department of Peace and Security published a communique in which the AU’s Secretary‑General, Moussa Faki Mahamat, expressed full support for Ghana’s reparations initiative. The communique stated that the AU had reviewed the draft resolution and found it consistent with the AU’s Agenda 2063, particularly the “Human Rights, Governance and Development” pillar. It also announced that the AU would lobby other member states to endorse the resolution and to contribute to the proposed reparations fund. The communique was widely circulated across African media outlets and was cited by several African civil society groups as evidence of continental backing for the initiative. Taken together, the sequence of official statements, legal briefings, and international endorsements demonstrates that Ghana has indeed planned to submit a UN resolution on slavery reparations. The claim is corroborated by multiple primary sources, including the Ghanaian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Law Institute of Ghana, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the African Union’s Department of Peace and Security. The evidence shows that the initiative is not merely a rhetorical gesture but a concrete policy move with formal submissions and international engagement already underway.