Nigeria, July 6 -- Ghana recently hosted a conference on Africa's next steps following the landmark United Nations (UN) resolution declaring the trafficking of African slaves as the 'gravest crime against humanity.' Ghana led the process to secure the resolution's passage and, at the June conference, sought to map out an AU reparations implementation plan.

However, like earlier AU reparations instruments adopted since the 1993 Abuja Proclamation, the conference commitments do not provide a comprehensive definition of reparations. They articulate the objectives, guiding principles and main forms of reparatory justice while leaving the concept itself undefined.

This omission may be due to the reparations agenda's political nature and evol...