SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) 鈥� A group of leaders met with senior clergy from the Church of England on Tuesday as the push for intensifies, with activists also calling for the independence of British, French, Dutch and U.S. territories in the region.
The reparations commission from Caricom, a Caribbean trade bloc, was scheduled to also meet with British parliamentarians as part of a four-day official trip to the to seek reparations, the second such trip since November.
The group said the commission is creating a framework to launch negotiations because the time for making the case for reparatory justice is overdue.
鈥淲e in the Caribbean remain the most colonized part of the world, and this has to stop,鈥� said Hilary Beckles, chairman of Caricom鈥檚 reparations commission and vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies.
The meetings in London come after Caribbean leaders by a U.K. lawmaker that Britain鈥檚 former colonies should repay it for its historic investment in them.
The commission noted that the Caribbean has at least 20 territories with ties to Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States.
鈥淚 am quite sure the people of the Caribbean 鈥� will be looking to see whether their king 鈥� is going to advance this conversation about sovereignty, decolonization and reparatory justice for these crimes that have been committed,鈥� Beckles said.
David Comissiong, Barbados鈥� ambassador to Caricom, echoed those comments, stressing that the first step of reparations must be the recovery of national sovereignty and self-determination.
He said the commission had a 鈥減roductive meeting鈥� with three senior clerics from the Church of England, calling it a 鈥減ossible ally.鈥�
He also praised for expressing in recent years 鈥減ersonal sorrow at the suffering of so many鈥� as he noted 鈥渟lavery鈥檚 enduring impact.鈥�
However, Comissiong and others criticized the United Kingdom for abstaining from that called for reparations and declared the trafficking of enslaved Africans 鈥渢he gravest crime against humanity.鈥� All 27 members of the European Union also abstained, while Argentina, Israel and the United States voted against the resolution.
Comissiong noted that some European governments have offered apologies, memorials, museums and the preservation of slavery infrastructure on Africa鈥檚 west coast.
鈥淭hese are some preliminary gestures that we appreciate,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut those gestures are not negotiations. 鈥� The damage that was done and that still exists today was so consequential, so deeply rooted, that it goes way beyond, way beyond gestures of memorialization.鈥�
An estimated 12 million were forcefully taken by European nations from the 16th to the 19th century, and those who survived the trip across the Atlantic Ocean were enslaved on plantations in the Caribbean and elsewhere under brutal conditions.
Commission members spoke during a press conference in London, ahead of the meeting with parliamentarians.
Among the questions was whether the commission would publish rules as to who should receive reparations.
The answer for the Caribbean remains unclear, although Ron Daniels, head of the National African-American Reparations Commission, said have centered on land, economic development and the restoration or building of communications and healthcare infrastructure.
鈥淩eparations is proceeding quite effectively in the United States as a blueprint,鈥� Daniels said.
Caricom leaders are seeking a formal apology; education and public health improvements; development programs for Indigenous people; repatriation and resettlement for those seeking to live in their homeland; debt cancellations; and monetary compensations, among other things.
In early September, Jamaica’s government is expected to file a formal petition asking King Charles III to refer legal questions on slavery reparations to the , the island’s final court of appeal.
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