The Drammeh Institute will hold a parallel forum to the 56^th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women on Saturday, March 3 under the theme: Women Water and Migration in Africa. Partners include: Tchad Agir Pour l’Einvironnement, Wateraid-Ghana, The December 12^th Movement and migrations expert Dr. Mojubaolu Okome, Professor of Political Science, African & Womens’ Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY. The event will be held at the United Nations Church Center, 777 United Nations Plaza. More information to come.

In an effort to acknowledge the tragedy of slavery, and the lingering consequences of the centuries-long enslavement of and trade in Africans supplied to the colonies of the Americas and beyond, the General Assembly adopted resolution ARES/62/122 in December2007 entitled Permanent Memorial to a Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

The Permanent Memorial initiative in a wider context is partial fulfillment of paragraph 101 of the Durban Declaration, adopted as an outcome of the international conference against racism held under the auspices of the United Nations, in Durban South Africa in 2001. The paragraph, inter alia, calls upon the international community to  honor the memory of the victims of slavery.

As this project moves forward, the Drammeh Institute will follow the, progress through the development of a documentary.

2011 is the 10 year anniversary of the WCAR and will be revisited in a formal follow-up on September 22 at the United Nations in New York. The film Durban 400 is a project of the Drammeh Institute and Al Santana Productions that follows one group of black activists (of the same name) as they pressure world governments to declare the trans Atlantic (European) slave trade and colonialism as crimes against humanity.

The significance of a final declaration recognizing these crimes against humanity would signal the right to reparations for African people. To purchase the film and background information, go to durban400thefilm.com