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UNITED NATIONS: \u200cGhana, 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 \u200bWestern countries for the effort.<\/p>\n
The campaign\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Later stages could include formal apologies, debt relief and financial compensation under a \u200c19-point plan \u200cadopted by the African Union and \u200bthe \u200cCaribbean \u2060Community \u200bCommission on Reparatory \u2060Justice at a conference in Ghana in June.<\/p>\n
The UN passed a resolution in March recognizing trans-Atlantic slavery as \u201cthe gravest crime against humanity\u201d with 123 votes in favor and three \u2014 from the US, Israel and Argentina \u2014 against. Fifty-two other countries, including European Union members and the UK, \u2060abstained.<\/p>\n
Since then, many European countries have expressed \u200ctheir support, he said. \u201cVirtually all \u200cthe European countries that abstained during the \u200bvote have reached out \u200cand have said they are going to work with \u200cus on this journey,\u201d Ablakwa said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
France, Germany \u200cand the Netherlands have pledged their willingness to return artifacts, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cRestitution is very \u2060important to \u2060this journey…These artifacts ought to be returned to the motherland,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Portugal and Britain \u200bwere responsible for transporting \u200bmore than 70 percent of all enslaved Africans across the Atlantic, according to the database.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n