During the Session on 16th February, 2023, Ghana proposed for the Executive Council’s consideration and subsequently the Assembly’s adoption, an agenda item entitled “Building a United Front to Advance the Cause of Justice for the Payment of Reparations to Africans”. The Executive Council of the African Union is composed of Foreign Ministers of Member States of the African Union, who primarily discuss issues of concern and make recommendations to the Assembly of Heads of State. In that regard, the Government of Ghana called on the AU Commission, in consultation with Member States, the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and other AU Organs to establish an African Committee of Experts on Reparations for the purpose of developing a Common African Position on Reparations, incorporating therein an African Reparatory Programme of Action; and also collaborate with the Caribbean Community (CURICOM) to establish an African-Caribbean Joint Mechanism on Reparative Justice, based on the resolve of the 2012 Global African Diaspora Summit held in South Africa. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Hon. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, has participated in the 42nd Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) which was held from 15th to 16th February, 2023 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The 42nd Session of the Executive Council considered several reports which included the Annual Report of the Activities of the Union and its Organs, the Progress Report on the Establishment and Operationalisation of the Africa Medicines Agency (AMA) and the Report of the Implementation of Activities on the Roadmap of the AU Theme for the Year 2022 on Nutrition. Delivering the introductory remarks on the proposed item, Ghana’s Foreign Minister stated that, the objective of the proposed item, among other things, was to add momentum to ongoing efforts by Africans and people of African descent for reparative justice, following the terrible tragedies that engulfed Africans through slavery, colonialism, apartheid and neo-colonialism. She further acknowledged that the devastation brought on by the slave trade along the coastline of Central and West Africa and its repercussions, which have lasted for many centuries, could not be repaired with money. However, she contended that, the continent as a whole should use the declarations and admissions of guilt for slavery and colonialism as a compelling reason and a foundation for a demand for reparations.
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