NANTES — French President Emmanuel Macron will host a ceremony on May 21 to mark the 25th anniversary of the 2001 law recognizing the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. France became the first country to adopt such a recognition under legislation brought by Christiane Taubira.

The ceremony comes as France faces pressure to announce a framework for discussions on reparatory justice in the coming weeks. Macron is entering his final months as president, with the far right polling high ahead of the 2027 presidential race and a political row underway over racism in politics, the media and society.

In March, France abstained alongside the United Kingdom and other European nations on a United Nations resolution describing the transatlantic slave trade as the "gravest crime against humanity" and calling for reparations. Victorin Lurel, a senator from Guadeloupe, wrote in an open letter to Macron that the abstention was a moral, historic, diplomatic and political mistake and had tarnished France's image internationally.

In 2025, Macron announced a joint commission with Haiti to examine the financial penalty France imposed on the country in 1825 to compensate owners of enslaved people after the Haitian revolution. The commission's conclusions are due by the end of 2025. The debt was fully repaid to France in 1947.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, France was the third largest European nation trafficking enslaved people across the Atlantic and Indian oceans. France was responsible for shipping about 13% of the estimated 13 million to 17 million Africans forced across the Atlantic.

Overseas departments that remain part of France include Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion and Mayotte. French national statistics show that people in Martinique pay 30% to 42% more for food than people in mainland France. The pesticide chlordecone, used widely on banana plantations to fight weevils, is linked to health problems and increased cancer rates.