Caribbean Regional Conference on Reparations convenes in St. Vincent

Press release St Vincent and the Grenadines hosts Regional Conference on Reparations  (CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Representatives of Governments, civil society, academia and individuals fighting the cause of reparations for native genocide and slavery, will meet in St Vincent and the Grenadines this weekend for a Regional Conference on Reparations. The conference, hosted by Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. the Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, will be held from 15-17 September, and is the first major event on reparations following the Thirty-fourth Conference of the Heads of Government of CARICOM in Trinidad and Tobago in July. At the Summit, Heads of Government agreed to the establishment of a National Reparations Committee in each Member State with the Chair of each Committee sitting on a CARICOM Reparations Commission. The Heads of Government of Barbados (Chair), St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago were identified to provide political oversight. The Community’s approach would be to hold a development conversation and to use all reasonable avenues to reach an amicable solution on reparations. The three-day Conference includes a meeting of the CARICOM Reparations Commission on 17 September. Prime Minster Gonsalves raised the matter of the Conference during a brief interaction with staff members of the CARICOM Secretariat on Monday 9 September when he visited Georgetown, and stressed that “we have to repair the legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism”. ********** Press release  Bunny Wailer, Professors Beckles, Shepherd  to address Regional Reparations Conference  (CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Professors Sir Hilary Beckles and Verene Shepherd, as well as famed Jamaican reggae artiste Bunny Wailer, are among those who will make presentations at the three-day Regional Conference on Reparations which (began)... in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Sunday. At the opening ceremony there will be addresses by Dr. the Hon Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Hon Stephen Lashley, Minister of Culture of Barbados and Jamaican educator Professor Shepherd. Bunny Wailer, (born Neville O’Riley Livingston), will perform at the opening, and will make a presentation on behalf of the Rastafarians the following day. The proceedings on Monday, which will be open to the public and streamed live, will feature presentations by the Chairpersons of the National Reparation Committees, Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Professor Beckles, Professor Shepherd and representatives of regional and other organisations. Tuesday’s sessions in which attorneys, government representatives and representatives of the reparations commissions will consider legal options, will be closed. On Tuesday also, the Chairpersons of the National Reparations Committees will select a Regional Reparations Commission Chair. The conference is the first major event on reparations following the Thirty-fourth Conference of the Heads of Government of CARICOM in Trinidad and Tobago in July. At the Summit, Heads of Government agreed to the establishment of a National Reparations Committee in each Member State with the Chair of each Committee sitting on a CARICOM Reparations Commission. The Heads of Government of Barbados (Chair), St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago were identified to provide political oversight. The Community’s approach would be to hold a development conversation and to use all reasonable avenues to reach an amicable solution on reparations.