President John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana has stated that, the call for the Return and Restitution of Cultural Properties and Heritage as part of the Reparatory Justice Agenda is a story about an unfinished journey toward justice.<\/p>\n
The President made this statement when he delivered his keynote address at the High-Level side event on \u201cThe Return and Restitution of Cultural Properties and Heritage\u201d, held on 23rd September 2026, on the side-lines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, USA.<\/p>\n
He stated that, for generations, Africa\u2019s history, memory, and identity have been held far from the hands that created them. The call for the return and restitution of cultural properties and heritage is, therefore, not simply a story about static objects in museum cases. It is a story about people. It is a story about dignity. It is a story about an unfinished journey toward justice.<\/p>\n
In his welcome remarks, Honourable Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Minister for Foreign Affairs, acknowledged that, Reparatory Justice is quite \u201can emotive a very difficult subject, and there are many aspects of this journey that will require some honest but tense discussions. But what is important is that this generation is willing to forge a new path. A path in reconciliation, a path in trusting each other\u201d.<\/p>\n
He stated that, even though, in all honesty, \u201cthose who perpetuated these crimes of slavery against humanity are dead and gone, it is for our generation, those of us who are alive, to build and create that new world which we all seek. And that is what President Mahama is working towards\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Minister used the opportunity to commend Germany and France for Co-hosting the event, which demonstrated their commitment to cooperate. He also commended the USA, for being the latest to formally disclose that, even though they voted against the landmark resolution, they were willing to begin to work with the Reparatory Justice movement towards that fair and just world we all seek.<\/p>\n
He stressed that, \u201cthe Ghana-led effort is not about dividing the world. It is rather about bringing us together. It is rather about healing. It is rather about genuine reconciliation. And that is what President Mahama, as Chair of the Global Advisory Panel on Reparatory Justice, and his colleagues are working towards\u201d.<\/p>\n
He further assured all that this was a good faith effort with no hidden agendas, nor secret motives, and that \u201call we seek is to build a new world, a fair and just world, a world without racism, a world without discrimination. And today we are beginning with a very important first step, the return and restitution of cultural artifacts\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana has stated that, the call for the Return and Restitution of Cultural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6955,"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6953\/revisions\/6955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfa.gov.gh\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}