BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis has voiced support for the push for reparations stemming from the atrocities of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the genocide of the native Indians and the exploitation of European colonisation at the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly on September 27, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas said he was in support of the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) initiative to seek reparations.
“As we move to close the chapter that ushers in a more enlightened era of human existence, St. Kitts and Nevis joins with the member states of the Caribbean Community in supporting the case, that very important case, for reparations associated with the atrocities of slavery.
“Although the repercussions of slavery on the lives of those of our ancestors cannot be quantified, we are convinced that the deleterious effects even now are translated into much hardship and poverty; for the descendants of our ancestors must be resolved and so Mr. President the time has come.”
A recent historic three-day Regional Reparations Conference (September 15-17), which was sponsored by the government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in collaboration with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), has called for member states of the regional body to set up national reparations committees to do research into the atrocities of slavery and native genocide.
Several countries of CARICOM have already set up National Reparations Committees but St. Kitts and Nevis has not yet done so. Ras Dabo Penny, who attended the reparations conference on behalf of St. Kitts and Nevis in St. Vincent, said that coming out of the conference he would be offering several recommendations to the government.
The conference was mandated by the historic resolution unanimously passed by CARICOM Heads of Government in July of this year in Trinidad and Tobago, which requested each CARICOM Member State to set up its own National Reparations Committee to document the effects of European genocide against the indigenous inhabitants of the region, the slave trade and enslavement of Africans and the colonisation of the countries.
The National Reparations Committees would act as advisors to the CARICOM Reparations Commission which would then advise government.
The CARICOM Reparations Commission was constituted to establish the moral, ethical and legal case for the payment of Reparations by Governments of all the former colonial powers and the relevant institutions in those countries to the nations and people of the Caribbean Community for the Crimes against Humanity of Native Genocide, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and a racialised system of chattel Slavery.
It also has the objectives to advise and make recommendations for coordinated CARICOM action by the Prime Ministerial Committee on Reparations and coordinate and support the work of National Reparations Commissions and Task Forces and encourage the development of Commissions in those countries that have not yet established national bodies.
The Commission is charged with receiving reports from National Reparations Commissions.
It is hoped that the work of the National Reparations Committees in all CARICOM countries would be advanced enough by the end of this year to enable a letter to be sent to the European countries being targeted for reparations to at least seek to begin a conversation on the issue with them.
