The Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro) has called on the Pope, European governments, Arab states, and other institutions that benefited from slavery to move beyond apologies and take concrete steps toward accountability for the historic injustice.
The group said it was not enough for countries and institutions to simply acknowledge that slavery was a crime against humanity, insisting that such admissions must be followed by meaningful responsibility for the long-term impact of the system.
PeacePro Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, said the global conversation on slavery should shift from moral recognition alone to a deeper examination of the benefits accumulated by slave-owning societies and institutions over centuries.
According to him, many governments, churches, and organisations have publicly admitted the historical wrong of slavery, but have failed to outline any clear or measurable form of accountability that reflects the scale of the exploitation.
“Many institutions have acknowledged slavery as a crime against humanity. That is welcome. But acknowledgment without accountability risks becoming a symbolic exercise rather than a moral reckoning,” Hamzat said.
He argued that the focus should not only be on the suffering of victims but also on the wealth, institutional growth, and global influence that slavery generated for beneficiary societies.
Hamzat maintained that those who inherited such advantages have a moral responsibility to propose voluntary accountability measures, even in the absence of direct demands from victims.
“The issue is not merely that slavery occurred. The issue is that some institutions and societies derived enormous benefits from it, while the victims and their descendants continue to bear many of its consequences,” he said.
He further stressed that accountability should be driven by conscience rather than external pressure, insisting that genuine responsibility begins with self-reflection by those who benefited from the system.
Hamzat added that only such an approach, rooted in moral responsibility, can move the global conversation from symbolic apologies to meaningful historical reckoning.
