Worth it!

Sir Hilary: Reparatory justice for slavery also a broader humanitarian fight

THE ongoing fight for reparatory justice would not only compensate Caribbean countries for the genocide and plundering experienced during slavery, but it would also send a strong message that those who commit crimes against humanity must be held accountable.

This is the belief of Vice- Chancellor of the University of the West Indies Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, who was delivering a lecture entitled “Reparations the Greatest Democracy Movement of the 21st Century” as part of a conference entitled Legal History and Empires: Perspectives from the Colonised, hosted by the Faculties of Law and Humanities and Education.

Sir Hilary stated that the slave owners created totalitarian fascist societies in the Caribbean during slavery and left broken institutions, unskilled, uneducated and poor people who were left behind to develop societies out of the rubble of history. While many islands have done relatively well, Sir Hilary described the slavery experience was the world’s first exposure to terrorism as it is known today.

Speaking in the Law Lecture Theatre on Wednesday evening, Sir Hilary outlined the broader implications of reparatory justice. “It says to the 21st century, this long century ahead of us...that all peoples, all nations, institutions that commit these horrendous crimes against humanity must be held accountable. It is the fundamental principle on which any democracy can exist going forward.

“It applies not only to the specific context and location and geographies of slavery, it applies to everyone. No matter who you are, if you commit, you will and must be held accountable.. I think that principle is worth fighting for from the point of view of humanity in general.

“Therefore I believe this reparations movement has the potential to be the core around which human society as we will imagine, social demography, social rights, that this becomes the movement around which all of these other issues will resolve. How do we hold people accountable for crimes especially crimes against vulnerable people, these heinous crimes that leave lasting scars on the human psyche? There has to be accountability. I think that is the broad principle and I think all right-minded thinking people, I believe ought to support that broad concept,” he said.

Sir Hilary revealed that there is increasing global buy-in about the need for reparations in the Caribbean particularly in the academic community.

“This movement has reached a stage now where it has evolved into an inter-governmental dialogue about development discourse. Who is going to clean up the mess? Why should Caribbean governments and citizens be completely responsible for removing these legacies which they themselves did not create?”

He also revealed that there are now 21 National Commissions for reparations in this hemisphere. “It is looking as though the entire world is gradually converging around the need to address this horrendous crime that has gone unresolved. Largely because reparations is ultimately a government to government conversation. It is about how governments talk to each other. How governments sit down and work out strategies to resolve issues of this nature.”

Sir Hilary commended the fact that the governments of the CARICOM finally agreed that the government and people of Europe have a case to answer. “This is why for the first time – after 150 years of reparations discourse, the governments of Caricom finally agreed four years ago that the government and people of Europe have a case to answer, including Western Europe whom have been invited to discuss the legacy which he lamented continues to cause tremendous harm to the Caribbean.

“Letters are being prepared as I speak for Germany, Russia and all of the countries of central and going to Eastern Europe, who were also a part of this, simply because we do not believe there is concept of major and minor slave owners,” he said. (JH)

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