The United Nations Wednesday launched a trust fund to build a permanent memorial for victims of slavery, and appointed hip-hop pioneer and entrepreneur Russell Simmons as a Goodwill Ambassador to promote the project.

"We hope to encourage broad study of the causes and lessons of the 400-year slave trade. We want to mobilize educational institutions and civil society to discuss the threat of intolerance from which no society is immune," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message to the launch ceremony, read out by Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka.

Simmons told reporters his role would be to increase awareness, especially among young persons, of the history of slavery, its lasting impact, and current slavery issues.

"It's humbling to be invited to join the UN community in this role as Goodwill Ambassador. In recognizing the past, we understand the stakes in ensuring that something as devastating to the human condition as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade will never happen again," he said.

"My life's commitment is to be of service to the empowerment of young people living in struggle, who undoubtedly have been effected by this legacy."

The memorial, projected to cost 3.5 million U.S. dollars, is expected to be completed by 2012.

The UN General Assembly decided in December 2007 to designate March 25 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Observances are held on the day in the United Nations to honor the millions of Africans removed from their homelands and cast into slavery.

According to the United Nations, it is estimated that up to 28 million men, women and children were taken from Africa from the 16th to 19th centuries and shipped across the Atlantic, mainly to colonies in North America, South America and the West Indies.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2009)