Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller is slated to join other world leaders and government officials at the United Nations (UN) in New York today for the unveiling of the permanent memorial to honour the victims of slavery and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. 

Simpson Miller made the announcement in Parliament yesterday and subsequently, a statement was issued by Jamaica House.

March 25 has been declared by the UN as International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Jamaica House says following the unveiling of the memorial, the Prime Minister will participate in a UN General Assembly plenary meeting to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance.

In 2007, Jamaica proposed and the General Assembly of the UN agreed to establish The Permanent Memorial on the grounds of the United Nations to honour the victims of the more than forty decades of slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, in which more than 18 million people were forcefully removed from Africa and transported as slaves to the Americas, including the Caribbean, and to Europe.‎

Tomorrow, Simpson Miller will address members of the Jamaican Diaspora at a town hall meeting at the St. Georges Episcopal Church Hall in New York. The Prime Minister will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator, AJ Nicholson.

She will return to Jamaica on Saturday, March 28. 

During her absence, Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, Robert Pickersgill will be in charge of the Government. ‎