Guyana, Caricom reaffirm commitment to pursue reparations

Even as Guyana continues in its fight for reparatory justice from Europe, Caricom Heads of Government have also reaffirmed their commitment to the struggle.
During the Caricom Heads of Government meeting earlier this month, Heads received a status report on the work of the Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC). They then reaffirmed their commitment to pursuing reparations for social justice, to restore the dignity of the victims and their descendants, and to seek redress for the crimes committed against humanity of native genocide and slavery.
They noted responses to the letters sent by the Chairman of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Reparations to European leaders. Heads also mandated the CRC, along with the Caricom Secretariat, to coordinate the preparation of a strategy that includes diplomatic, media and messaging to advance the reparations claim, and to redouble efforts at public education.
The Heads agreed too to strengthen national programmes of activities to mark the International Decade for People of African Descent, including public engagement on reparations. On Friday, President David Granger is scheduled to deliver feature remarks at a reparations conference.
Caribbean leaders in 2014 had approved a 10-point plan to seek reparations from the former slave-owning states of Europe. These points include those countries providing diplomatic help to persuade countries, such as Ghana and Ethiopia, to offer citizenship to the children, whose foreparents were brought to the Caribbean to “return” to Africa; devising a developmental strategy to help improve the lives of poor communities in the Caribbean still devastated by the after-effects of slavery; supporting cultural exchanges between the Caribbean and West Africa to help Caribbean people of African descent rebuild their sense of history and identity; supporting literacy drives designed to improve education levels that are still low in many Caribbean communities; and providing medical assistance to the Region that is struggling with high levels of chronic diseases, such as hypertension and type two diabetes that the CRC linked to the fallout from slavery.
It has been reported that if the European powers fail to publicly apologise and refuse to come to the negotiating table, the Caricom nations will file a lawsuit against them at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Governments in the Caribbean have estimated that reparations for the slave trade could be trillions of dollars, and some have floated the idea of debt relief.
Some 46,000 British slave-owners, including a distant relative of former Prime Minister David Cameron, were among those compensated at a current-day equivalent of £17 billion (US billion) for “loss of human property” after the country emancipated its slaves in 1833.