Geneva – 30 April 2026: ECOSOCC and the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) committed to an enhanced period of collaboration aimed at ensuring the successful implementation of the African Union Decade of Action on Reparations, as part of ECOSOCC’s ongoing role in the operationalization of the African Union policy framework on reparations.
This emerged from a technical meeting between the two institutions on the sidelines of the 117 th Session of CERD in Geneva, during which Mr. Kyeretwie Osei, ECOSOCC Head of Programs, briefed the UN body on the Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialized Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime against Humanity, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on March 26, 2026.
The meeting discussed the opportunities presented by the renewed institutional focus within the African Union on the question of reparations, including the activation of the AU Committee of Experts on Reparations and the extension of the 2025 AU Theme of the Year on Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations into the AU Decade of Action on Reparations 2025-2035.
The institutions further underscored the need for coordinated and synergistic effort in order to leverage and harmonize the various multilateral processes underway on the elimination of racial discrimination, including CERD General Recommendation 40, currently in an advanced stage of preparation, and which will provide an institutional framework at the level of CERD to address the question of reparations.
The importance of preserving the unified diplomatic front demonstrated during the negotiations on the UNGA resolution on the racialized chattel enslavement of Africans was highlighted as a matter of urgent concern, and both ECOSOCC and CERD committed to playing a key role in fostering coordinated action across the relevant institutions including the African Union, CARICOM, CELAC and the United Nations.
