The United States’ small steps towards reparations
The path to local level reparations in the United States continues with victories and defeats in cities like Evaston, Chicago, Providence, Burlington, Kalamazoo County, Carrboro, Wilmington, Amherst, San Francisco, New York, Saint Paul, Los Angeles, Durham, Detroit, Fulton County, Greenbelt, High Point, Asheville, Saint Louis, Boston and Atlanta.
Also the path to state level reparations continues with victories and defeats in California, where the Task Force to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans presented the final report and lawmakers introduced a package of bills on reparations.
This was presented in Illinois, where the African descent-citizens reparations Commission is developing reparations measures, in the New York State, where the Community commission on reparations remedies has been established, and in New Jersey, Maryland and Oregon, where the legislative process for the establishment of Task Force or Commissions for reparations is still underway.
At the federal level the stalemate unfortunately continues in the adoption of H.R. 40 to establish a Commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans and in response to the requests to the United States President Joe Biden to create the Commission by executive order.
Colonialism Reparation (CR), a movement for the condemnation, the reconciliation, the apologies and the compensations for colonialism, establishes that the United States of America should create as soon as possible a Commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans, keep the electoral promises made, and invite all the state and local administrations to take action in the same direction.
CR also supports the requests for reparations for slavery by Africa and the Caribbean and calls on the former colonizers (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, etc.) to apologise and pay compensations for the colonial period.
Africa, the Caribbean and reparations
The request for reparations for the genocide of the natives and the slavery by the members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) continues, and on June 8, 2023 Judge Patrick Robinson, member of the International Court of Justice, presented the Report on Reparations for Transatlantic Chattel Slavery in the Americas and the Caribbean.
It was prepared by the Brattle Group for the University of the West Indies and the American Society of International Law’s, which estimates the compensations due for transatlantic slavery at between one hundred and one hundred and thirty-one trillion dollars.
On October 12, 2023 the President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro asked CELAC for the creation of a “Commission for the Historical Truth of Colonialism and for the Reparation of All Latin and Caribbean America”, proposed by the thirty-one Indigenous and African descent peoples present at the first Insurgent Meeting for Venezuelanity.
The Vice President of Colombia Francia Márquez also inaugurated the “National Intersectoral Commission for Historical Reparation”, created by Decree 820/23 with the aim of overcoming the effects of racism, racial discrimination and colonialism in the country’s ethnic populations.
From 14 to 17 November 2023 the Accra Reparations Conference was held with the participation of the President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of the African Union Azali Assoumani, the Prime Minister of Burundi Gervais Ndirakobuca, the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, the Vice President of the African Union Commission Monique Nsanzabaganwa and the Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Carla Barnett.
The conference ended with the approval of the Accra Proclamation on Reparations, which provides the African Union for the creation of a Committee of Experts on Reparations, a Global Reparations Fund and a Special Envoy on Reparations for Africans.
It will also provide for the recognition of African civil society efforts on reparations, for the creation of a transcontinental partnership with CARICOM and the African diaspora, for the exploration of legal and judicial options for reparations with the creation of a Legal Reference Group, for the repatriation of the remains and the restitution of African cultural artifacts and for the regular holding of the International Conference on Reparations.
Source: Colonialism Reparations (CR)
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