Time has come for the subject of reparations for the victims of the Atlantic slave trade to be placed on the United Nations agenda, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
Ramaphosa on Wednesday reminded the world body that it hosted the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban 20 years ago, where UN member states adopted a landmark plan for combating these scourges.
That plan was the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA), which noted that millions of descendants of Africans who were sold into slavery remained trapped in lives of underdevelopment, disadvantage, discrimination and poverty, the president said.
The 2001 declaration embodied the commitment of the international community to address the legacy of the past, “including the acknowledgement that slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity,” he added.
He said the legacy of slavery — which he described as a crime of unparalleled barbarity — persisted in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and in Africa today.
Ramaphosa said South Africa supported the adoption of special measures, including affirmative action programmes and targeted financial assistance, as restitution to communities whose ancestors were sold into slavery.
“We further support all measures being undertaken to address the historic and contemporary discrimination against people of African descent,” he said, adding that “as we strive to correct the wrongs of the past, we must combat the racism, sexism and national chauvinism of the present.”
According to him, racism directed at ethnic minorities, migrants, refugees and other marginalised groups had led to the denial of opportunities and to institutionalised discrimination and violence.
“Twenty years ago, at the World Conference Against Racism, we committed to an anti-discrimination agenda that would bring new hope and change to the lives of millions,” he said.
“Just as we stand united to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, we must recommit ourselves to implement the Durban Declaration and Platform for Action. We must pursue this objective with energy and goodwill,” the president said.
All countries therefore were called on by history to redouble efforts to build a world free of racism to right the wrongs of the past and to restore the human dignity of all, he said.
NM/jn/APA