International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

 International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, is an international day celebrated August 23 of each year, the day designated by UNESCO to memorialize the transatlantic slave trade.

That date was chosen by the adoption of resolution 29 C/40 by the Organization's General Conference at its 29th session Circular CL/3494 of July 29, 1998, from the Director-General invited Ministers of Culture to promote the day.

The date is significant because, during the night of August 22 to August 23, 1791, on the island of Saint Domingue (now known as Haiti), an uprising began which set forth events which were a major factor in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.