Calls for slavery to be recognized as a crime against humanity

On 11-13 March 1998, Édouard Glissant, Patrick Chamoiseau and Wole Soyinka organize a conference in Paris entitled 'Poétiques d'Édouard Glissant' in honour of the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in France (1848).

In the concluding remarks, read by Glissant, the organizers call for France to name 'the Slave Trade and slavery perpetrated in the Americas and the Indian Ocean: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY', echoing those issued in 1993 by the Comité International des Peuples Noirs (CIPN). This call is published as the ‘Déclaration du manifeste de 1998 sur l’esclavage’.