A United Nations (UN) Peace Ambassador has called on President John Dramani Mahama to channel the momentum of this week’s landmark slavery resolution into a fresh push for Africa to secure a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Bishop Samuel Ben Owusu made the appeal on Saturday, days after the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a historic resolution on Wednesday, March 25, declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. The resolution, spearheaded by Ghana, received 123 votes in favour, with Argentina, Israel, and the United States voting against and 52 countries abstaining.
Speaking to journalists, Bishop Owusu said the two issues were inseparable. “I want President Mahama to also lead the advocacy for an African seat at the UN Security Council. We cannot ask for reparative justice and also see the Atlantic slave trade as the leading, highest crimes ever to exist in human history and we still do not have a seat at the UN Security Council,” he said.
The ambassador argued that Africa’s exclusion from the Security Council undermined the continent’s ability to shape the very global systems it was seeking to reform. He said the time had come for Africa to be treated as a powerhouse capable of influencing security and economic decisions within the UN, and urged Mahama to take up that advocacy with the same determination he showed in pushing the slavery resolution.
The resolution, adopted as UN Resolution A/80/L.48, marks a significant shift in how the international community engages with the enduring legacies of slavery, affirming that claims for reparations represent a concrete step toward remedying historical wrongs against Africans and people of African descent.
President Mahama, one of the African Union’s most vocal champions of slavery reparations, was present at UN headquarters in New York to support the vote. Ahead of the vote, he described the passage of the resolution as an opportunity for the majority of the world’s countries to affirm that the trafficking and enslavement of nearly 13 million human beings was, indeed, the gravest crime against humanity.
Africa’s campaign for permanent Security Council representation is long-standing. The continent formally demands at least two permanent seats with veto power and additional non-permanent seats, as set out in the Ezulwini Consensus, the African Union’s common position on UN reform. The five current permanent members of the Security Council are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China, none of which represents Africa.
