Rome Statute codifies enslavement as a crime against humanity

The UN adopted a convention providing that statutory time limits do not apply to war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined in the postwar framework. It became relevant to later reparations...

Representative John Conyers introduced H.R. 40 in the 101st Congress. The proposal sought a commission to examine slavery, discrimination and possible reparations for African Americans. It placed...

The First Pan-African Conference on Reparations adopted the Abuja Proclamation, framing slavery, the slave trade and colonialism as harms requiring repair. It called on the international community...

MP Bernie Grant introduced an Early Day Motion welcoming the Abuja conference and urging recognition of the international community’s moral debt. Parliamentary advocacy translated a Pan-African...

The General Assembly decided to convene the World Conference against Racism, creating a global intergovernmental forum where African, Caribbean and diaspora advocates could press historical...

Civil-society organizations met before the World Conference against Racism. The NGO forum advanced a more direct account of transatlantic slavery, colonialism and reparations than many governments...

The UN World Conference against Racism opened in Durban, South Africa. African states, Caribbean states, diaspora movements and NGOs brought slavery and colonialism into a major multilateral debate on...

The World Conference adopted the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Paragraph 13 recognizes that slavery and the slave trade, particularly the transatlantic trade, are crimes against humanity...

The UN Commission on Human Rights established a dedicated expert body to study problems of racial discrimination faced by people of African descent and recommend measures. The institutional pathway...

The General Assembly adopted resolution 62/122, establishing 25 March as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade and calling for a permanent...