African Leaders Unite at UNGA to Demand Reparations, UN Reform

At the 2025 United Nations General Assembly, African leaders expressed strong demands for global reforms and reparative justice, highlighting the continent's marginalization in international decision-making, especially within the UN Security Council. Ghana’s President John Mahama, serving as the African Union Champion for Reparations, called for recognition of the transatlantic slave trade as the greatest crime against humanity and announced plans to introduce formal reparations mechanisms through the UN. Several leaders criticized Western nations for their silence on colonial crimes and called for financial reparations, environmental restoration, and cultural restitution. There was also widespread disappointment over the perceived lackluster performance and disunity among African leaders in effectively advocating for Africa’s urgent diplomatic priorities and humanitarian issues such as the Gaza crisis. The African Union was urged to ensure more strategic and cost-effective foreign policy representation, while calls for Security Council reform and greater inclusion of the Global South dominated discussions to restore faith in multilateralism. Critics lamented that the UNGA has become more spectacle than substance, with African leaders cautioned to move beyond symbolic participation towards impactful action.