before the
Joint Bureaus Meeting and Consultations of the
African Union Committee of Experts on Reparations (AUCER)
and the African Union Reference Group of Legal Experts (AULER)
held Under the Auspices of
H.E. John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana
African Union Leader for Advancing the Cause of Justice and Reparations
to Africans and People of African Descent
9–10 February 2026, Accra, Republic of Ghana
Please check against delivery
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ghana,
Hon. Chief Director, Amb. Khadija Iddrisu, Chief Director, Ministry Of Foreign Affairs.
Hon. Special Envoy Spio-Ghabrah
Excellencies,
Honourable Dr. Jane Mufamadi, AUCER Chair
Honourable Advocate Kingston Magaya Ag. AULER Chair
Honourable
Members
of
the
Distinguished
Representatives
Colleagues and Partners,
Joint
of
Bureaus
of
AUCER
and
Government
of
AULER,
Ghana,
It is an honour to address you at this Joint Bureaus Meeting and Consultations of AUCER and AULER,
convened here in Accra, Ghana, from 9 to 10 February 2026.
Allow me, at the outset, to convey, on behalf of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission
Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the appreciation to His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, President of the
Republic of Ghana and African Union Leader for Advancing the Cause of Justice and Reparations to
Africans and People of African Descent and to the Government and People of Ghana, so highly represented
in our opening session by Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister for Foreign Affairs, for the generous
hospitality and for the principled leadership in ensuring that reparatory justice is advanced from vision to
implementation.
Excellencies, distinguished Colleagues,
Our meeting takes place at a historic inTlection point for our continent and its Diaspora. In 2025, the
Assembly of Heads of State and Government designated the African Union Theme of the Year as “Justice
for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations,” through Assembly Decision 884. Withthat decision, our Union elevated reparatory justice from a moral appeal to a structured continental
programme of action to confront the enduring consequences of transatlantic enslavement, colonialism,
and apartheid as crimes against humanity and genocide against African peoples. This theme has ensured
that reparations are no longer treated as a peripheral or symbolic issue, but as a central pillar of Africa’s
quest for dignity, equality, and meaningful sovereignty in the 21st century.
Importantly, the Theme of the Year Tirmly positioned reparatory justice as a strategic enabler of Africa’s
development sovereignty, political agency, and continental renewal, anchored within the Implementation
of Agenda 2063. Within this framework, reparations are explicitly aligned with Aspiration 3 on good
governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice, and the rule of law; Aspiration 5 on an Africa
with a strong cultural identity, shared values, and common heritage; and Aspiration 7 on Africa as a
strong, united, and inTluential global player and partner. In practical terms, this means that reparatory
justice is treated as a cross-cutting enabler that underpins multiple Moonshots and Tlagship initiatives of
Agenda 2063, rather than as a narrow, sector-speciTic intervention.
Excellencies,
Over the last year, our Union has taken decisive steps to translate political commitment into institutional
responsibility. Assembly Decisions 884 and 903 mandated the mainstreaming of reparatory justice across
the whole African Union system, while Decision 913 on the convening of the 9th Pan-African Congress and
Decision 934 on qualifying transatlantic enslavement, deportation, and colonisation as crimes against
humanity have deepened the normative foundation of our work. Taken together, these decisions
constitute the strongest continental framework on reparations for historical colonial crimes. They also
remove any ambiguity as to whether the African Union treats these historical wrongs as isolated events of
the past or as structural injustices requiring redress in the present and future.
Institutional architecture
To give effect to these decisions, a deTining achievement of the 2025 Theme of the Year was the creation of
a robust institutional architecture to support the reparatory justice agenda. Central to this architecture is
the AU Coordination Team on Reparations, coordinated by CIDO, which brings together departments,
organs, specialized institutions, and AU representational and liaison ofTices in a system-wide approach.
Within this framework, and pursuant to Assembly Decision 884 and Executive Council Decision
EX.CL/Dec.1311(XLVII), CIDO coordinated the constitution of the Committee of Experts on Reparations
(AUCER) and the Reference Group of Legal Experts (AULER) and convened their inception meetings at AU
premises from 15 to 19 December 2025.
Those inception meetings were an important inaugural step. Each mechanism constituted its Bureau,
adopted conclusions and framework papers to guide its future work, and established thematic Working
Groups. These Working Groups address global governance and structural reparations; economic,
environmental, cultural, scientiTic, and educational reparations; advocacy, communication, and knowledge
production; as well as applicable sources of international law from an Afrocentric perspective, the
classiTication and qualiTication of historical crimes, comparative practices and modalities of reparations,
and legal mobilisation strategies. Your Joint Bureauz Meeting here in Accra is the next stage in
consolidating this architecture, strengthening coordination, and nurturing cross-fertilisation between the
two mechanisms in a manner that can inform policy, diplomacy, and law at all levels.
Excellencies,
The 2025 Theme of the Year was launched through high-level engagements that underscored the
indivisibility of Africa and its Diaspora, reafTirming that reparatory justice is inherently transcontinentalin character. The launch phase prioritised a global narrative shift: reparations were deliberately
repositioned as a forward-looking justice agenda that is integral to development, cultural renewal,
scientiTic and technological equity, and institutional reform, as well as to the redress of historical
injustices. This reframing has been ampliTied through Africa Day commemorations, multi-stakeholder
consultations, and academic and policy debates, afTirming that reparations speak not only to the past, but
also to structural inequalities in the present and the conditions for shared prosperity in the future.
This narrative shift reinforces reparatory justice as a pillar of Africa’s broader struggle for epistemic,
economic, technological, and cultural sovereignty. It links historical redress directly to questions of who
produces knowledge, who controls technology, who sets global rules, and who beneTits from the current
international order. As we move into the 2026–2035 Decade of Justice for Africans and People of African
Descent through Reparations, this integrated perspective will be essential in ensuring that our work on
reparations shapes, and is shaped by, wider struggles for systemic transformation.
System-wide mainstreaming and resource allocation
Excellencies, honorables, and distinguished participants,
Another key development has been the process of system-wide mainstreaming and resource allocation.
The Assembly decisions marked a shift from treating reparations as a stand-alone initiative towards
positioning it as a cross-cutting priority of the Union, directly linked to Agenda 2063 implementation and
its Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan performance frameworks. The Commission has initiated
processes to designate reparations as a Flagship Issue and Project of the Union, with reparatory justice
considerations integrated into the review of the AU Strategic Plan 2024–2028 and into the preparation of
the 2027 Budget Framework Paper. In parallel, the Commission has engaged with Member States to
enhance national-level mainstreaming, including encouraging them to host annual conferences and
platforms on reparations, thus strengthening ownership and implementation at national and regional
levels.
Agenda setting and advocacy
Agenda setting and advocacy have also been central to the Year of Reparations. Across the AU system,
thematic and sectoral initiatives have been aligned with the reparations agenda, and major AU-hosted
events have integrated the Theme of the Year into their central deliberations. Coordination among the
African Group, working through AU Permanent Missions in Geneva, New York, Brussels, and Washington,
has proved instrumental in advancing a coherent strategy. This has contributed to the adoption of key
resolutions in the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly that place reparatory justice at
the centre of deliberations within the UN system, including through engagement with treaty bodies,
advisory opinion processes, and other avenues for normative development.
Strategic partnerships and multilateral engagement
Excellencies,
Our continental efforts have been reinforced by strategic partnerships and multilateral engagement. The
operationalisation of the AU–CARICOM Memorandum of Understanding on upscaling engagement with
People of African Descent, and the convening of the Second Africa–CARICOM Summit at AU premises,
culminated in the Addis Ababa Declaration on Transcontinental Partnership in Pursuit of Reparatory
Justice. Engagement with the United Nations system, particularly UNESCO and the UN Permanent Forum
on People of African Descent, has ampliTied Africa’s normative leadership and placed reparations in the
context of contemporary challenges such as digital inequality and structural global asymmetries.Preparations are underway to host, for the Tirst time on African soil, a session of the UN Permanent Forum
on People of African Descent at AU premises in Addis Ababa, which will further anchor Africa as a
reference point in global reparations discourse.
The Theme of the Year has also featured prominently in Africa’s partnerships beyond the continent. At the
7th African Union–European Union Summit, the Joint Declaration, for the Tirst time, recognised and
profoundly regretted the untold suffering caused by the slave trade, colonialism, and apartheid,
reafTirmed support for the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and acknowledged the enduring
contributions of Africans and people of African descent in shaping the future of Africa–Europe relations.
These developments provide an important diplomatic foundation as our Union transitions from a Year of
Reparations to a Decade of Justice, calling for more ambitious policy, legal, and Tinancial commitments
from our partners.
Remaining gaps
Excellencies, Colleagues,
At the same time, we must approach our work with clarity about the remaining gaps. The 2025 Theme of
the Year has highlighted critical structural constraints, including limited human resource capacities
dedicated to reparatory justice, the need for the full operationalisation and sustainable funding of expert
mechanisms such as AUCER and AULER, and the need for deeper, structured engagement at national level.
At the international level, there remains an urgent need to broaden and deepen partnerships, and to
mobilise sustained political and institutional support for reparatory justice within the UN system and its
specialised agencies. Our deliberations over the next two days will be essential in identifying concrete,
prioritised, and sequenced responses to these gaps.
AUCER and AULER Future Contribution
In this regard, the mandate entrusted to AUCER and AULER is both technical and profoundly political. As
experts, you are called upon to provide conceptual clarity on the forms, modalities, and benchmarks of
reparations, to elaborate innovative legal and diplomatic strategies, and to articulate an Afrocentric
framework for qualifying historical crimes and advancing claims. As Pan-Africanists, you are called to
ensure that this work is anchored in the lived experiences, aspirations, and agency of Africans and people
of African descent, including youth, women, and communities whose voices have historically been
marginalised in international law and diplomacy. The Working Groups you lead—on structural
governance reparations, on economic and environmental justice, on cultural, educational, and scientiTic
redress, and on legal mobilisation and comparative practice—are the engines through which this
transformation can be made real.
Excellencies,
The initiative of the government of Ghana is highly laudable for three main reasons:
•
•
•
It strengthens the link between the work of the two AU reparations mechanisms and the AU
Leader/Champion on reparations ensuring coherence and linking technical expertise with
political leadership.
It enhances the coordination and nurtures cross-fertilization between the two mechanisms that
were mandated as separate by the Assembly.
It sends a strong diplomatic message, ahead of the February Summit, to the global environment
that may about the centrality of the calls of reparations and justice.
This Joint Bureaux Meeting in Accra has therefore three broad opportunities before it.•
•
•
First, to consolidate a coherent continental roadmap for the 2026–2035 Decade of Justice for
Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations, with clear milestones, indicators, and
division of labour between the AU Commission, Member States, RECs, civil society, and global
partners.
Second, to reTine our legal and diplomatic strategies so that Advisory Opinions, UN resolutions,
regional court decisions, and national processes reinforce one another and cumulatively shift
global norms and practices in favour of reparatory justice.
Third, to deepen co-creation with civil society, academia, cultural institutions, and communities,
recognising that sustainable progress on reparations requires broad societal ownership and
intergenerational engagement.
The Commission, through CIDO, remains fully committed to supporting you in these tasks. As coordinator
of the AU Coordination Team on Reparations, our role is to ensure that your recommendations translate
into actionable programmes across the Union, and that diaspora voices are systematically integrated into
our processes.
We will be honored to continue to work with the OfTice of His Excellency President Mahama, with Member
States, with CARICOM and other regional partners, and with the wider UN system to mobilise the political,
institutional, and Tinancial support needed to implement your guidance.
Excellencies,
Distinguished colleagues,
The African Union has entered a new phase of coherent continental action on justice and reparations,
demonstrating moral clarity and political leadership. The year 2025 must be remembered not only as a
symbolic milestone, but as the foundation of a durable and unprecedented reparations architecture, one
that gives practical meaning to Pan-African solidarity across time and space. Our collective task, as we
embark on this Decade of Justice, is to ensure that we move decisively from recognition to restitution,
reform, and repair—through concrete policy shifts, institutional reforms, and material commitments that
address the enduring legacies of historical and colonial crimes.
In closing, allow me once again to express, , on behalf of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission
Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, profound appreciation, through Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister for
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ghana, to His Excellency John Dramani Mahama for his invaluable
custodianship as African Union Leader on Justice and Reparations to Africans and People of African
Descent, and to the Government and People of Ghana for hosting this Joint Bureaux Meeting.
I also wish to thank each of you for your dedication and for the expertise you bring to this historic
endeavor. I am conTident that our deliberations here in Accra will chart a clear, ambitious, and
implementable path towards a future in which reparatory justice is not an aspiration, but a lived reality
for Africans and people of African descent everywhere.
