WESTERN COUNTRIES INCREASE SUPPORT FOR SLAVERY REPARATIONS, GHANA SAYS. (PHOTO).

 Western countries increase support for slavery reparations, Ghana says

Ghana, which has led a campaign for reparations for the nearly four-century-long trans-Atlantic slave trade, said on Wednesday that support ​is growing among Western countries for the effort.

The campaign's first focus is ‌on restitution of looted artifacts, Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa told an event on reparatory justice co-hosted by Ghana, Germany and France on the sidelines of the UN General ​Assembly on Wednesday.

Later stages could include formal apologies, debt relief and ​financial compensation under a 19-point plan adopted by the African Union ⁠and the Caribbean Community Commission on Reparatory Justice at a conference in Ghana ​in June.

The UN passed a resolution in March recognizing trans-Atlantic slavery as "the gravest ​crime against humanity" with 123 votes in favor and three — from the US, Israel and Argentina — against. Fifty-two other countries, including European Union members and the UK, abstained.

Since then, many European ​countries have expressed their support, he said. "Virtually all the European countries that abstained ​during the vote have reached out and have said they are going to work with ‌us ⁠on this journey," Ablakwa said.

The UK and Portugal have offered support, and the US has also said it is willing to work with the Ghana-led effort, Ablakwa said.

France, Germany and the Netherlands have pledged their willingness to return artifacts, he ​added.

About 12.5 million Africans were enslaved and transported across the ​Atlantic between the 16th and 19th centuries, according to the ​Trans-Atlantic Slave ⁠Trade Database. They were taken to South America, the Caribbean and North America to labor on plantations and in mines. This generated vast wealth that fueled development ⁠of Western ​powers while causing enduring economic and social ​harm.