Barbados prime minister announces manifesto for slavery reparations | World news
Barbados’ prime minister, Mia Mottley, has announced a new manifesto from Caribbean leaders making the “moral, ethical and legal case” for redress for the harms caused by centuries of slavery.
Mottley was speaking at a “historic” conference in Ghana to advance restorative justice efforts after the United Nations adopted a landmark resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans the greatest crime against humanity.
The manifesto he distributed at the conference is an update of the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom) 10-point plan on reparations from former colonial powers. It raises new issues, including the disproportionate impact of slavery on girls and women.
The plan includes a new, specific call for reparations for gender-based violence and cites data suggesting that “women represent approximately 30% of the estimated 20 million Africans forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean.” It also mentions estimates that at least 1.2 million slave women suffered sexual violence.
Highlighting the update, Mottley said that “compensation for gender-based violence and assault on the family” is “no different from compensation given to other nations, such as the Japanese.”
The draft, seen by the Guardian, argues that climate justice and slavery reparations are “inextricably linked” and highlights the need for a plan to support indigenous people in the Caribbean who suffered genocide when Europeans arrived.
The document, which is still to be ratified by Caribbean governments, makes clear that Caricom is demanding a full and formal apology from the UK and other European countries, as well as other forms of reparations such as education and training, as well as monetary compensation.
“Caricom seeks monetary compensation as compensation from enslaving nations, monarchies, churches, institutions, corporations, and families for loss of life and uncompensated labor, loss of liberty, personal injury, mental pain and suffering, and gender-based violence for victims of indigenous genocide, transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans, and chattel slavery of Africans, which constitute grave crimes against humanity,” the document states.
But it does not specify the amount requested by Caribbean countries, describing the plan as “a collective vision to seek restorative justice.”
Description of the Conference Mottley said it was a “historic moment”: “We live in a world where people call out people for everything, for misogyny, for sexual assault, for all kinds of behavior. And yet we have not found the moral courage to unanimously state across humanity that this grave crime against humanity, which has been going on for centuries, should be declared as such by everyone.”
“The fact that others choose to remain silent is a reflection of them, not us. Likewise, we said that there should be no step back regarding repair. The language used on this platform this morning is not aggression, it is not violence, but it is one of the requirements for the healing of humanity.”
Caribbean governments have repeatedly called for recognition of the enduring legacies of colonialism and enslavement and for restorative justice from former colonizers since 2013.
In March, the UK was one of several European countries to abstain from voting on a UN general assembly resolution defining chattel slavery as the greatest crime against humanity. The resolution was adopted after an overwhelming majority of 123 countries voted in favour; only the United States, Israel and Argentina voted against it.
Caricom’s 52-page document, which the Caribbean Reparations Commission said has been revised to include previously emerging scientific and historical evidence, has clearer legal arguments that frame reparations as a global human rights imperative.
He emphasizes that crimes against humanity “are not subject to the statute of limitations”, meaning that no matter how much time has passed since the crime occurred, “legal proceedings for accountability and justice can still be initiated”.
He supports this by citing international laws such as the convention adopted by the United Nations in 1968 stating that legal limitations cannot be applied to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The manifesto, the second update since the original 10-point plan was drafted in 2014, uses strong language and highlights the “failure of former colonial powers to apologize for and make amends for their racist actions against indigenous and African ancestors and their descendants.”
