Pressure heightens for reparatory justice for Slavery and Colonialism

Reparations discussed at the United Nations

Colonialism Reparation

(OTR Reading List)

The general Debate of the 69th session of the United Nations general Assembly was held in New York from 24 to September 30, 2014. During the Debate some delegates from Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadinesand Trinidad and Tobago demanded reparations for the genocide of the native people and slavery; this request was also supported by the delegate of Cuba. The request was submitted for the first time last year during the general debate of the 68th session of the United Nations general Assembly.

The second regional Conference on reparations was then held in Bolans, Antigua and Barbuda, from 12 to October 14, 2014 with the attendance among others of the former Prime Minister of Jamaica P. J. Patterson, of the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, of the President of the "CARICOM reparations Commission" Hilary Beckles, of some delegations of the "national Commissions on reparations" and of other delegations from Guadeloupe, Martinique and the British Virgin Islands. The work was focused on the involvement of the academic world and the community mobilization regarding the CARICOM's Ten Point Plan for reparatory justice.

To date, the "national Commissions on reparations" are present in twelve of the fifteen member States: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. The "CARICOM reparations Commission" provided for theirestablishment even in other countries through the involvement of the Caribbean diaspora .

Colonialism Reparation supports the request for reparations for the genocide of the native people and slavery submitted to the United Nations general Assembly by the member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and calls on the former colonizers (the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark) to apologize and pay compensation for the colonial period.