African and Caribbean leaders are demanding financial compensation, debt cancellation, and formal apologies from countries that benefited from the transatlantic slave trade after adopting a sweeping reparations plan at a conference in Ghana.

Reparations Plan Details

The 19-point framework calls for financial compensation, debt relief, a Global Reparations Fund, and the return of looted cultural artifacts and ancestral remains. It also seeks reforms to international financial institutions that supporters say disadvantage Third World countries.

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama told delegates, ‘None of us gathered in this hall today can be held personally responsible for the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade. History does not ask us to inherit guilt, but it asks us to inherit responsibility.’

The proposal does not identify specific countries that should provide compensation or issue formal apologies. However, it does call for debt cancellation, climate justice financing, expanded citizenship pathways for Africans in the diaspora, and what organizers describe as a ‘right of return’ for descendants of enslaved Africans.

International Response

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the gathering virtually, acknowledging the suffering caused by slavery. Enslaved people were ‘torn from their homelands, deported, dehumanised, and treated as goods,’ Macron said.

The conference follows a UN vote in March recognizing transatlantic slavery as the ‘gravest crime against humanity.’ The resolution passed with 123 votes in favor, but the U.S., Israel, and 52 other countries either voted against it or abstained.

Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.