International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade - March 25

March 25th is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It serves as a reminder that greater effort must be made to ensure that the history of the transatlantic slave trade is not forgotten and that it is used as a tool to combat discrimination and inequality. Julie Walker caught up with the Jamaican Ambassador to the UN Raymond Wolfe at a special event at United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss his plans for a permanent memorial at the UN.

“The story of the end of the slave trade deserves to be told here at the United Nations. Indeed, the defense of human rights is at the heart of this Organization’s global mission. Our Charter proclaims equal rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude”.
Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon

The Transatlantic slave trade persisted for four centuries.

Imagine being torn from your weeping family as a result of ethnic warfare…forced to walk hundreds of miles until you reach the sea on the West African side of the Atlantic Ocean. You are stripped of your name, your identity, of every right a human being deserves. The European ship that you are forced to board, is headed across the Atlantic to Caribbean and South American plantations, a voyage through the awful “middle passage”. A multitude of black people of every description chained together, with scarcely room to turn, traveling for months, seasick, surrounded by the filth of vomit-filled tubs, into which children often fell, some suffocating. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying renders the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable. Death and disease are all around and only one in six will survive this journey and the brutal, backbreaking labour that follows.

International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade - 25 March

The theme of this year’s observance, “Honouring the heroes, resisters and survivors”

Message of the United Nations Secretary-General

The transatlantic slave trade was a tragedy because of slavery’s fundamental barbarism and immense scope, and because of its organized, systematic nature.  One set of human beings – the traders, owners and others who participated in and profited from this evil enterprise – elevated themselves above another, assaulting their victims’ very essence.
“I can remember”, said one former slave in recorded testimony now posted on the UN website (http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/tag/slavery/), when “they carried my father away and carried two sisters and one brother, and left me”.  This International Day was established for this woman -- and for the many millions of people whose lives and families were destroyed, and whose dignity was so brutally negated.
As a reminder for future generations of the inhumane suffering endured by the victims over a 400-year period, and as a tribute to the spirited resistance to the system, a permanent memorial is to be erected at UN Headquarters. I am proud that the United Nations will host a memorial symbolizing universal recognition of a tragedy that befell Africans and people of African descent and disgraced humankind as a whole.
In addition to remembering the crimes of the slave trade, we also use this Day to teach about the causes and consequences of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.  And we pledge to be ever vigilant about the many contemporary forms of slavery, including debt bondage, trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.
New laws, institutions and mindsets have given us better tools for the struggle against these ills.  Yet we must also recognize that bias has increased in many parts of the world.  We see discriminatory practices gaining political, moral and even legal recognition, including through the platforms of some political parties and organizations and the dissemination through modern communication technologies of ideas based on the notion of racial superiority.
The United Nations remains firmly committed to countering such hateful acts and trends.  This is a matter of principle, in keeping with our Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Political Declaration adopted at last year’s High-level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.  But it is also a means to an end: intolerance and discrimination are among the roots of conflicts and are major obstacles to development.
The theme of this year’s observance, “Honouring the heroes, resisters and survivors”, recognizes those who stood up against slavery when the trade was at its height, and those who stand up now to protect against its manifestations today.  On this International Day, let us all reaffirm our commitment to combating racism and building societies based on justice, equality and solidarity.