Since 2006, the United Nations General Assembly has established the Information Program of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery and appointed March 25 each year to raise awareness of that tragic chapter in history.

This program is carried out with ceremonies and activities at the United Nations offices globally including its headquarters in New York, where this year, the commemorative event forwards a message of reparations.

The UN estimates that more than 13 million Africans have been victims of slavery, driven by the racist ideology that these women, men, and children were inferior because of the color of their skin. At the same time, countless families were torn apart, and untold numbers of people lost their lives.

Despite centuries of gross human rights abuses and intergenerational trauma, enslaved people have remained resilient, demonstrating courage and defiance against conditions of slavery, forced labor, systemic violence, and oppression, the agency added.

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