ACCRA — Ghana is hosting a three-day conference in Accra to advance reparatory justice following a United Nations resolution. The conference, titled Next Steps, is the first major gathering on reparatory justice since the adoption of the U.N. resolution on the issue.

Heads of state, ministers, civil society representatives, historians, researchers, and legal experts from more than 80 countries are attending the conference. Participants include representatives from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Caricom Reparations Commission, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Conference participants are set to deliberate on five objectives, which include formulating a global framework to advance the U.N. resolution. They will also work towards establishing global panels on reparatory justice and restitution. Ghana stated in a conference concept note, "This resolution represents a fundamental departure from the international community’s response to the transatlantic slave trade, replacing commemorative gestures with the pursuit of historical truth and dialogue, aimed at reconciliation and justice."

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a proposal by Ghana on behalf of African Union member states. This proposal recognized the trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement as the gravest crime against humanity. 123 states voted in favor of the proposal, while three states — the U.S., Israel, and Argentina — voted against it. 52 states abstained from the U.N. vote, including the U.K. and all E.U. member states.

The U.N. resolution calls for member states to engage in inclusive dialogue on reparatory justice and the restitution of cultural properties. Kyeretwie Osei, head of programmes at the Economic, Social and Cultural Council, said, "There is this slow but really substantive movement towards some sort of global reckoning on this issue. This conference is really going to allow Africa to ensure that it has the structures that would be necessary and the political will that we’ve seen to be properly leveraged and channelled to ensure that we are able to best give practical meaning to this particular point in time." Liliane Umubyeyi, co-founder and executive director of African Futures Lab, said, "This would significantly accelerate the reparations agenda, especially if other international institutions that have previously been hesitant to engage with the issue begin to do so."

Expected speakers at the conference include African Union Commission chair Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Ghana President John Mahama, Liberia President Joseph Boakai, Namibia President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and France President Emmanuel Macron. An event will also be held at Osu Castle on June 19 to honor Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the U.S. Osu Castle, a 17th-century fortress in Accra built by the Danish, served as a hub for the transatlantic slave trade that lasted approximately 400 years, from the early 16th century to the late 19th century. The Abuja Proclamation of 1993 demanded reparations for colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.