April 21, 2025
CARICOM made a public name for reparations “to make sure that Europe is held to account.”
The Caribbean Group and Frequent Market (CARICOM) has introduced its name for reparations to the United Nations, urging accountability for historic injustices that proceed to deeply have an effect on the Black group at present.
Hilary Brown, a consultant of the CARICOM Reparations Fee, addressed the United Nations through the second day of the fourth session of the Everlasting Discussion board on Folks of African Descent, Reuters experiences. She pushed ahead the reparations agenda, which incorporates calls for for know-how transfers and focused investments to fight well being crises and illiteracy.
“Sufficient speak, time for concrete outcomes,” Brown mentioned.
CARICOM and the African Union, each with established reparations plans, have united lately to strengthen their name for justice for folks of African descent. Their partnership marks a “defining second” within the motion, permitting them to talk with one voice in demanding significant motion, Brown says.
By working collectively, they’re trying to push the reparations agenda ahead on the United Nations and different worldwide our bodies, co-sponsor a joint UN decision on reparations, and advocate for the creation of a high-level political discussion board devoted to the difficulty.
“CARICOM is able to take this agenda to the subsequent degree, and we welcome the partnership of the AU and different coalitions that share the imaginative and prescient and conviction mandatory to make sure that Europe is held to account,” Brown mentioned.
CARICOM’s name comes on the heels of Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell’s February attraction to European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, urging former colonial powers to challenge a proper apology and supply compensation for his or her historic involvement within the transatlantic slave commerce.
“I don’t imply to be rude,” Mitchell informed von der Leyen, who attended CARICOM’s forty eighth heads of presidency assembly in Barbados for the primary time. “However I’ll say it to you: the difficulty of reparations… is a matter we’ll take up with you.”
Mitchell continued: “We owe it to ourselves and future generations of humanity to make sure (slavery) is accepted as against the law in opposition to humanity, and that applicable apology and compensation is paid, and that the worldwide group accepts this could by no means occur once more.”
Von der Leyen averted referencing reparations in her response, saying, “Slavery is against the law in opposition to humanity… and the dignity and common rights of each single human being is untouchable and have to be defended by all means.”
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