Barbados PM Mia Mottley Unveils Manifesto for Slavery Reparations

• Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced a new manifesto for slavery reparations.
• The manifesto asserts the moral, ethical, and legal case for reparations for historical enslavement.
• The updated plan includes specific calls for compensation for gender-based violence.
• It links climate justice and reparations, and supports indigenous people affected by genocides.
• Caricom demands monetary compensation, apologies, education, and training from former colonizing nations.
• The document frames reparations as a global human rights imperative, citing international laws.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has unveiled a new manifesto from Caribbean leaders, asserting a comprehensive case for reparations for the damages caused by centuries of enslavement. Speaking at a conference in Ghana, Mottley distributed the updated document, which builds upon the Caribbean Community (Caricom) 10-point plan.

The revised manifesto introduces new considerations, including specific calls for compensation for gender-based violence and sexual assault experienced by enslaved women, referencing historical data. It also draws parallels to compensation awarded to other nationalities, such as the Japanese. Furthermore, the document explicitly links climate justice with reparatory demands and highlights the need for support for indigenous populations who faced genocides in the Caribbean.

Caricom is seeking monetary compensation, alongside a formal apology, education, and training, from Britain and other European countries. The manifesto frames these demands as a matter of global human rights, asserting that crimes against humanity, such as chattel slavery, are not subject to statutes of limitations, citing international legal conventions.

Mottley described the conference as a "historic moment," emphasizing the need for humanity to acknowledge the grave crime against humanity that slavery represented and to pursue healing through repair. The push for reparatory justice has been a repeated call from Caribbean governments since 2013. Notably, the UK abstained from a recent UN General Assembly resolution that overwhelmingly recognized chattel slavery as the gravest crime against humanity.