Venezuela present at the Consultative Conference on the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had a delegation at the High-Level Consultative Conference on the adoption of the historic Resolution A/RES/80/250 of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) on the transatlantic slave trade, held in Accra, capital of the Republic of Ghana, from June 17 to 19.

This conference was led by the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahana, as president of the host country and the driving force behind the Resolution approved by the UN last March, on trafficking and enslavement of Africans as “the most serious crime against humanity”.

In this regard, President Mahana expressed the importance of the working meeting, which marked the interest of contributing together to the development of a final document, which expresses the sustained international mechanisms, that seek historical justice for the reparation and restoration of cultural property for the consequences of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.

He indicated that these practices exist “today in the form of structural racism, racial inequalities, underdevelopment, marginalization and socio-economic disparities affecting Africans and people of African descent in all parts of the world.”

Venezuela's participation strongly supports the initiative since its inception, recognizing the historic need for the international community to move towards full recognition of the crimes derived from the transatlantic trade in enslaved persons and their persistent consequences for peoples of African descent.

The national delegation, in its intervention, highlighted its active and constructive presence in multilateral forums, international events and initiatives aimed at recognizing the historical injustice derived from colonialism, slavery and the transatlantic trade of Africans and their descendants, as well as the promotion of reparative justice measures.

The representatives of Venezuela indicated that the National Government implements the inclusion of the issue of reparations as a public policy, standing out as the first country in South America to address the issue of reparations from a governmental point of view.

They also noted that, at the International Meeting on the Decade of African Descent and Reparations, held in Caracas in May 2018, the participants committed themselves to promoting lines of research on the legal-legal, multilateral, political, historical and philosophical aspects of the topic.

The conference brought together heads of State and Government, ministers of foreign affairs, global experts in restorative justice, legal professionals, academics, civil organizations, representatives of the African Union (AU), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and UN agencies.

MPPRE