The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) has brought its call for reparations to the United Nations, urging accountability for historical injustices that continue to deeply affect the Black community today.
Hilary Brown, a representative of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, addressed the United Nations during the second day of the fourth session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, Reuters reports. She pushed forward the reparations agenda, which includes demands for technology transfers and targeted investments to combat health crises and illiteracy.
“Enough talk, time for concrete results,” Brown said.
CARICOM and the African Union, both with established reparations plans, have united in recent years to strengthen their call for justice for people of African descent. Their partnership marks a “defining moment” in the movement, allowing them to speak with one voice in demanding meaningful action, Brown says.
By working together, they’re looking to push the reparations agenda forward at the United Nations and other international bodies, co-sponsor a joint UN resolution on reparations, and advocate for the creation of a high-level political forum dedicated to the issue.
“CARICOM is ready to take this agenda to the next level, and we welcome the partnership of the AU and other coalitions that share the vision and conviction necessary to ensure that Europe is held to account,” Brown said.
CARICOM’s call comes on the heels of Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell’s February appeal to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging former colonial powers to issue a formal apology and provide compensation for their historical involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.
“I don’t mean to be impolite,” Mitchell told von der Leyen, who attended CARICOM’s 48th heads of government meeting in Barbados for the first time. “But I will say it to you: the issue of reparations… is an issue we will take up with you.”
Mitchell continued: “We owe it to ourselves and future generations of humanity to ensure (slavery) is accepted as a crime against humanity, and that appropriate apology and compensation is paid, and that the international community accepts this should never happen again.”
Von der Leyen avoided referencing reparations in her response, saying, “Slavery is a crime against humanity… and the dignity and universal rights of every single human being is untouchable and must be defended by all means.”
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