Fighting Modern Servitude, Exploitation Promotes Justice, Deputy Secretary-General Tells ‘Still We Rise’ Event to Mark International Day of Remembrance

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to “Still We Rise”, the cultural event to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, held today:

Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased to join you as we mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

We honour the legacy of the victims — their courage and tenacious efforts to hold on to their cultures, the memory of their birthnames, and their homeland and kin, in the face of untold brutality.

Some have names that are globally renowned, such as Harriet Tubman.  But, there far more who we don’t know — who risked their lives and liberty to help others to freedom, understanding that they were not free until all were free.

For 400 years, racism was used to justify the vile trade in human beings, making it easier for millions to be indifferent to the suffering of enslaved women, men and children.  The slave trade entrenched the racist belief that certain humans were less than human — not worthy of protection from exploitation and violence.

While the transatlantic slave trade ended over two centuries ago, its legacy endures.  Racist attitudes and beliefs, legitimized by laws and institutions of finance, education and religion, are still evident today.  The scars of injustice continue to impair lives, hopes and dreams.

The United Nations is strongly committed to building a world in which all people live in dignity, freedom and peace.  But, without justice, there can be no peace.  We nurture justice in different ways.  When we acknowledge the grave injustice of the transatlantic slave trade, we give victims a form of justice.  We advance justice when we challenge the full spectrum of injustice in our world.  And we promote justice when we fight contemporary forms of servitude and exploitation.

Let us act together to end slavery’s legacy of racism.  It is through action that we best honour generations of enslaved human beings and their descendants.  Thank you.