CP/RES. 915 (1587/07)

COMMEMORATION OF THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ABOLITION OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

(Approved at the meeting of March 28, 2007)

 

THE PERMANENT COUNCIL OF THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES,

REAFFIRMING the principle contained in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man which declares that “all men are born free and equal, in dignity and in rights and being endowed by nature with reason and conscience, they should conduct themselves as brothers one to another;”

RECALLING Article 45 (a) of the Charter of the OAS that states “All human beings, without distinction as to race, sex, nationality, creed, or social condition, have a right to material well-being and to their spiritual development, under circumstances of liberty, dignity, equality of opportunity, and economic security;”

RECALLING that slavery and the slave trade were declared a crime against humanity by the Regional Conference of the Americas, held in Santiago de Chile, Chile from December 5 to 7, 2000, and the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa, from August 31 to September 7, 2001;

DEEPLY CONCERNED that it has taken the international community almost two hundred years to acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade are a crime against humanity and should always have been so;

RECOGNIZING that the inhumane practice of the transatlantic slave trade by which millions of Africans were forcibly transported as slaves, mostly from West Africa to the Americas between the fifteenth and late nineteenth centuries, caused indescribable hardship to Africans and their descendants;

RECOGNIZING ALSO that the slave trade and slavery were used to enrich those who perpetrated it and produced a legacy of injustice, social and economic inequality, segregation, hate, bigotry, prejudice, and racism;

HONORING the memories of those who died enslaved as well as those who fought against slavery;

APPRECIATING the contributions made by those men and women who in spite of such extreme adversity rose above their circumstances to effect positive change in their various generations;

OBSERVING that the first measures to abolish the transatlantic slave trade were taken 200 years ago and that those measures helped to expedite the abolition of the global slave trade and of slavery;

ACKNOWLEDGING the efforts of member states that work to mitigate the effects of slavery;

ALARMED at the persistence of contemporary forms of slavery;

BEARING IN MIND that the global community, including the Americas, must ensure that slavery and the slave trade, which are among the worst violations of human rights in the history of humanity, are never forgotten and more importantly never repeated; and

TAKING NOTE that the United Nations designated March 25, 2007 as the International Day for the Commemoration of the Two-hundredth Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade,

RESOLVES:

1. To commemorate the Two-hundredth Anniversary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by holding a Special Meeting of the Permanent Council.

2. To urge member states to continue implementing measures that are geared towards eradicating the effects and consequences of the slave trade and slavery.

3. To urge member states to develop programs and activities, particularly educational programs at the primary and secondary school levels that are designed to foster an environment of respect for diversity, and tolerance in its citizens and an understanding of the consequences of slavery and the significance of the slave trade.

4. To call on member states to prevent, punish and eliminate all contemporary forms of slavery.

5. To encourage participating member states to work cooperatively to conclude the discussions and negotiations on the “Draft Inter-American Convention against Racism and all forms of Discrimination and Intolerance.”

6. To request the General Secretariat through its Department of Press and Communication to commemorate the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade by focusing on eminent citizens of the Americas who made significant contributions to the abolition of the slave trade and slavery.


7. To request the Committee on Inter-American Summits Management and Civil Society Participation in OAS Activities to promote awareness of the significance of the two-hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade particularly among civil society groups that focus on issues affecting Afro-Descendants.