UN pays tribute to victims of transatlantic slavery, calls for financial reparations

The UN chief has called for reparations over the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people during the 15th to 19th century as a way to tackle its legacy in today’s society, including systemic racism.

Top United Nations officials, including its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the President of the General Assembly on Monday (25 March) paid tribute to the millions of men, women and children who suffered as a result of the transatlantic slave trade, one of most devastating chapters in human history, according to the UN News. During the period of almost five centuries, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and merchants and sold into slavery to toil on plantations in the Americas, mostly in the Caribbean and Brazil.
“It is inconceivable that the enslaved were cruelly regarded as mere commodities for sale and exploitation,” the UN chief said. “Together with their children born into slavery, perpetuating the vicious cycle of bondage and suffering – enduring untold horrors at the hands of their oppressors,” Guterres added. In September last year, the UN released a report calling on countries to consider financial reparations for transatlantic slavery, a move that has been hailed as a significant step forward by campaigners.

According to the report, none of the countries involved in the transatlantic slave trade had comprehensively accounted for the past and addressed the legacy of the mass enslavement of people of African descent for more than 400 years.”