Note to Correspondents

SCHOLARS IN PANEL DISCUSSION TO ADDRESS KNOWLEDGE GAP CONCERNING CONSEQUENCES

OF SLAVERY, IN MARKING ABOLITION OF TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

A panel discussion to mark the International Day for the Commemoration of the 200^th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade on 26 March, will be hosted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassadors’ Caucus, in collaboration with the Department of Public Information, at 3 p.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber.

Titled “The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: The Tragedy, The Legacy”, the discussion is being held in the context of General Assembly resolution 61/19, which recognizes “the knowledge gap that exists with regard to the consequences created by the slave trade and slavery, and on the interactions, past and present, generated among the peoples of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, including the Caribbean”.

Gil Noble, journalist and TV personality, will moderate the discussion among the panel of eminent scholars, which include Franklin Knight (Jamaica), the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor of History and Director of the History of African Americans, John Hopkins Institutions Project; Ali Mazrui (Kenya), the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, Director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies and Professor of Political Science, African Studies and Philosophy, Interpretation and Culture, Binghamton University, State University of New York; Lincoln Crawford, barrister, author and member of the United Kingdom’s Deputy Prime Minister’s National Commission on Slavery; Nana Opuku Agyeman, Lecturer, Cape Coast University, Ghana; Anthony Martin (Trinidad and Tobago), Professor of African Studies, Wellesley College; and James Campbell (United States), Chairman of the Slavery Committee, Brown University.

The panel discussion is part of the General Assembly’s official commemoration that begins at 10 a.m. on Monday 26 March.  The solemn observance will start with African drumming in the General Assembly performed by “Sing Sing Rythms”.  A message from Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will be read by Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.  A statement by the President of the sixty-first session of the General Assembly will be delivered by the acting President of the General Assembly, Ambassador Boniface Guwa Chidyausiku, Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations.  The Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Douglas, will deliver a statement on behalf of CARICOM.  Rex Nettleford, a distinguished scholar on slavery and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of West Indies, will deliver the keynote lecture, and the Independence Choir, consisting of singers drawn from New York’s West Indian Community, will close the plenary session, performing under the baton of their artistic director, Lloyd Chung.  The programme throughout the Day can be viewed live at www.un.org/webcast/index.asp.

At 12:45 p.m., the Department of Public Information will convene a press conference in Room 226 with Prime Minister Douglas; Mr. Nettleford; the Chairman of the CARICOM Ambassadors’ Caucus, Ambassador Philip Sealy, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations; and the Chairman of the CARICOM Commemoration Committee, Ambassador Crispin Gregoire, the Permanent Representative of Dominica to the United Nations.

For more information, please contact Johnston-britton@un.org.  For media accreditation, please visit www.un.org/media/accreditation; tel: 1 212 963 6937, fax: 1 212 963 4642.

Media representatives, delegates and representatives of non-governmental organizations with a valid United Nations grounds pass are invited to attend.  All others must register to attend, by sending e-mail to rroji@un.org with name and affiliation.

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For information media • not an official record