CARICOM Unveils Stronger Reparations Justice Manifesto

Caribbean leaders have advanced a renewed campaign for reparations linked to slavery and colonialism, unveiling an updated manifesto that seeks financial compensation and other forms of redress from former colonial powers.

The document was presented by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley at a conference in Ghana, where delegates gathered to discuss reparatory justice following a recent United Nations resolution that classified the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.

The revised manifesto builds on the Caribbean Community’s existing 10 point reparations plan and introduces a stronger emphasis on the impact of slavery on women and girls, including a call for compensation related to gender based violence.

According to the document, women accounted for approximately 30 per cent of the estimated 20 million Africans transported across the Atlantic during the slave trade. It also cites estimates suggesting that at least 1.2 million enslaved women were subjected to sexual violence.

Mottley said compensation for such abuses should be treated consistently with reparations awarded in other historical cases. “The compensation for gender-based violence and assault on family” was “no different from the compensation that has been awarded to other nationalities such as the Japanese”, she told delegates.

The 52 page draft also links climate justice to slavery reparations and calls for measures to support Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean affected by European colonisation.

While the manifesto does not set a financial figure, it explicitly states that Caricom seeks monetary compensation alongside formal apologies, educational support and training programmes. The document says reparations should be paid by enslaving nations, monarchies, churches, institutions, corporations and families for harms including loss of life, forced labour, loss of liberty, personal injury and gender based violence.

Addressing the conference, Mottley described the gathering as a “historic moment” and argued that humanity must show the “moral courage” to recognise slavery as a crime against humanity. “There should be no retreat on repair,” she said, adding that the campaign was driven by “the necessities for healing for humanity”.

Caribbean governments have pursued reparatory justice since 2013. The updated manifesto strengthens the legal basis for those demands, arguing that crimes against humanity are not subject to statutory time limits.

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