Politics of human rights in a fast-changing world

President John Dramani Mahama presented his ‘Declaration of the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity’ to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly for consideration and adoption yesterday, the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 

Slavery Reparations

Ghana is advancing the resolution in its capacity as the African Union’s Champion on Reparations, in collaboration with the Caribbean Community and Common Market and people of African descent worldwide.

If passed, this would be the first comprehensive resolution on the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the nearly 80-year history of the UN.

Full disclosure: I am British and thus, however remotely, a beneficiary of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, as many of my countrymen and women financially benefited from the trans-Atlantic slave trade, whose profits helped to build Britain’s wealth and modernise the country.

The British government is expected to vote against the claim for financial reparations.

This is not because the British government – or indeed the British people – believe that the trans-Atlantic slave trade was anything but abhorrent: it is because the British government doesn’t want to pay the anticipated billions of dollars as compensation for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Abhorrent trade

Some Gold Coast elites, including rulers and merchants, got very rich through the slave trade, acquiring great wealth and power by trading captives for European goods.

Historical evidence indicates that some elite families and groups in Ghana today are descendants of those who played a role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, although modern wealth is rarely directly tied to that specific historical income. 

Lincoln University Controversy

Yesterday, when President Mahama delivered his speech at the United Nations, the news broke that the Lincoln University in the United States had cancelled the planned award of an honorary doctorate ceremony to him – just two days before it was set to take place.

The Lincoln University is particularly important in the history and independence of Ghana: it was the institution where Kwame Nkrumah gained two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology in 1939 and a Bachelor of Theology degree in 1942, the top student in the course that year.

The Lincoln University cited concerns surrounding Ghana’s controversial Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill – widely described by critics as anti-LGBTQ+.

Originally, the honour was meant to recognise Mahama’s leadership and public service. However, backlash tied to his perceived support for the ‘anti-LGBTQ+’ bill appears to have influenced the university’s decision.

The Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovation, Samuel Nartey George, in a post shared on X, claimed that the university should be ashamed for cancelling the ceremony after initially inviting the President. Ghanaians, he announced, ‘will not allow themselves to be influenced by what he described as “devilish” forces’.

Minister George is, of course, the lead sponsor of the ‘anti-LGBTQ+’ bill.

Human rights

So, there we have it: on the one hand, President Mahama is demanding justice for Africa in the form of financial reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, a disgusting business whereby millions of Africans lost all human rights, while facilitating the economic growth and development of many Western countries.

On the other hand, the Lincoln University has cancelled a prestigious award to Ghana’s President because of fears that a potential law would significantly undermine a sexual minority’s human rights.

This unfortunate situation highlights a growing global tension: Sovereignty and cultural values versus heightened global expectations around human rights standards. 

The bigger issue is how do countries, including Ghana, navigate identity, human rights policy and global perceptions in an intimately interconnected, fast-changing and increasingly unstable world?

The writer is an Emeritus Professor of Politics, London Metropolitan University, UK.