Slave Trade Remembrance Day

Human Rights

About Slave Trade Remembrance Day

How long until Slave Trade Remembrance Day?
Slave Trade Remembrance Day .
Dates of Slave Trade Remembrance Day
2026 United NationsAug 23 United Nations Sun, Aug 23Not A Public Holiday 2025 United NationsAug 23 United Nations Sat, Aug 23Not A Public Holiday 2024 United NationsAug 23 United Nations Fri, Aug 23Not A Public Holiday 2023 United NationsAug 23 United Nations Wed, Aug 23Not A Public Holiday 2022 United NationsAug 23 United Nations Tue, Aug 23Not A Public Holiday
Summary
This International Day is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples.

This day is observed on 23 August every year to remind us about the tragedy of the slave trade in memory of all peoples that is about the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade. It provides a chance to think about the historic causes and the consequences of the slave trade.

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition was first celebrated in a number of countries, in particular in Haiti (23 August 1998) and Goree in Senegal (23 August 1999). Cultural events and debates too were organized. The year 2001 saw the participation of the Mulhouse Textile Museum in France in the form of a workshop for fabrics called "Indiennes de Traite" (a type of calico) which served as currency for the exchange of slaves in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

Where Slaves came from

Find out more

Related Observances

25March

Slavery Remembrance Day

For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest chapters in human history.