Ghana hosts major reparatory justice conference in Accra

Ghana has opened a three-day conference in Accra aimed at advancing reparatory justice and restitution, bringing together participants from more than 80 countries. The gathering, billed as Next Steps, is the first major meeting on the issue since a landmark United Nations resolution on the trafficking of enslaved Africans was adopted. Heads of state and government, ministers, civil society representatives, historians, researchers and legal experts are among those taking part.

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The conference began on Wednesday and is focused on turning political momentum into practical commitments. Organisers say participants are working around five objectives, including creating a framework to advance the resolution's aims globally and establishing global panels on reparatory justice and restitution. Expected speakers include the chair of the African Union Commission, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, and the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, alongside the presidents of Ghana, Liberia, Namibia, Senegal and France.

A further event is planned for 19 June at Osu Castle in Accra to mark Juneteenth. The 17th-century fortress, built by the Danish, was used as a hub for the transatlantic slave trade. The conference is taking place nearly three months after the UN General Assembly voted on a proposal put forward by Ghana on behalf of African Union member states to recognise the trafficking of enslaved Africans and the racialised chattel enslavement of people from the continent as the gravest crime against humanity.

The meeting matters because it is intended to move the debate beyond symbolic recognition and towards institutional action. The resolution was backed by 123 states, while three countries voted against it and 52 abstained, including the UK and all European Union member states. That vote gave new diplomatic weight to long-running calls from African and Caribbean leaders for restitution, reconciliation and formal acknowledgement of the scale of the historical crime.

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The issue has been discussed for years, but previous efforts by African countries have often been fragmented. The current conference is being presented as an attempt to coordinate those efforts more closely and to build a common international approach. It also places Ghana at the centre of a wider campaign that links historical memory with present-day diplomacy and legal advocacy.

What remains unclear is how much concrete agreement will emerge from the Accra meeting and whether the proposed panels and framework will lead to measurable commitments. The significance of the conference will depend on whether participants can translate broad support into agreed next steps after the event ends. Attention will also be on the Osu Castle session and on whether the expected speakers use the gathering to outline specific follow-up actions.

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