CARICOM seeking Reparations from developmental perspective says Dr. Hilary Brown

CASTRIES, St. Lucia October 29, 2016 - Programme Manager, Culture and Community Development at the CARICOM Secretariat Dr. Hilary Brown has sought to clarify that reparations for the Region are being sought more from a developmental perspective rather than to receive monetary compensation.

Dr. Brown was speaking at the press conference in Saint Lucia held just before the kick-off of three youth-oriented reparations related events this weekend to coincide with World Creole Day and Saint Lucia Creole Heritage Month.

Dr. Hilary Brown has sought to clarify that reparations for the Region are being sought more from a developmental perspective rather than to receive monetary compensation.

The first event was a National Youth Forum on Friday October 28, which featured Vladimir Lucien, a well-known St. Lucian writer and poet. On Saturday there was a CARICOM Reparations Baton Relay which culminated in a Rally at the Dereck Walcott Square.

The events, hosted under the theme ‘No Development Without Justice – Reparations For Us All!’ are being coordinated by the Saint Lucia National Reparations Commission in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat.

Dr. Brown, in her remarks, said reparations were not being sought to set up a system where payouts were given to descendants of victims. She said the focus would be seeking compensation in relation to health, development and psychological issues such as self-loathing among Caribbean people which had manifested itself through practices such as skin bleaching.

Regional Reparations Coordinator Mr. Sydney Bartley also spoke at the event. In his remarks he focused on some of the effects of slavery that are not usually considered in the history books.

He invited those present to think about a mother going to the river to wash her clothes and never returning home to her child, or a child going to school and never being able to go back home to its mother. He invited everyone to imagine what that felt like and the emotional turmoil that resulted from those experiences.

Reparations for the slave era is an issue that has increasingly resonated in recent years and CARICOM, at its highest level of decision-making, has placed this issue on the front burner of its agenda.

A Ten-Point Action Plan for Reparatory Justice was endorsed by Heads of Government in March 2014, and is being used as the basis for discussions on reparations. In 2013, CARICOM Heads of Government established the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC).

Its mandate is to prepare the case for reparatory justice for the Region’s indigenous and African descendant communities who are victims of Crimes against Humanity (CAH) in the forms of genocide, slavery, slave trading and racial apartheid.