Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

Cabinet establishes reparations committee

Pursuant to the decision of the 34th regular meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government, the Cabinet of Saint Lucia has approved the establishment of a national committee on reparations.

The following persons and organisations have been invited by the Cabinet to serve on the Committee:

1. Mr. Earl Bousquet (Chairperson);
2. Dr. June Soomer;
3. Mr. Nkhrumah Lucien;
4. Dr. Anderson Reynolds;
5. Ms. Thea Alexander;
6. Ms. Lydia Charlemagne;
7. Bongo Wisely Tafari (Burnet Sealy);
8. Representative of the Iyanola Council for the Advancement of Rastafari;
9. Representative of the Folk Research Centre;
10. Representative of the National Youth Council;
11. Representative of the Archaeological and Historical Society; and
12. Right Honourable Priest Kailash Kay Leonce.

The committee will convene to discuss and agree on its terms of reference and functions.

In July, the conference of CARICOM Heads of Government in Trinidad and Tobago took the historic, unanimous decision to engage the governments of the United Kingdom, France and Holland on the issue of reparations for native genocide and slavery.

The Heads of Government also 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 the enslavement of Africans, and the colonisation of the country.

The meeting also agreed to the establishment of a political oversight committee under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Barbados and comprising the chair of conference and the heads of states and governments of Guyana, Haiti, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname. The committee of Heads of Government will oversee the work of a CARICOM Reparations Commission comprising the chairs of national reparation committees and a representative of a reparation research unit at the University of the West Indies.

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