Commonwealth Leaders Will Face Off Against the UK on Slavery Reparatory Justice

Leaders of the Commonwealth are getting ready to take on the UK over reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.

By approving plans to look into reparatory justice in relation to the transatlantic slave trade, Commonwealth leaders are getting ready to take on the United Kingdom.

According to diplomatic sources, officials are negotiating an agreement to carry out additional research and start meaningful discussions on a matter that could potentially leave the UK liable for billions in reparations, despite Downing Street’s insistence that this issue will not be discussed at the 56 Commonwealth countries’ upcoming summit, which is scheduled to take place in Samoa on Friday.

“Once you broach the subject, it may take a while for people to come around, but come around they will,” said Frederick Mitchell, the Bahamas’ foreign minister, as reported by the BBC.

“Heads, noting calls for discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement… agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity,” according to the current draft of the summit communique, as reported.

The statement emphasizes how government officials would actively promote inclusive dialogues to address these problems. In order to foster discussion and offer guidance for future initiatives, they have pledged to prioritize and support additional study on the transatlantic trade in Africans held in slavery and chattel slavery.

Diplomats have drafted the wording in advance of the summit, but it may still be changed when Commonwealth leaders arrive. British authorities were able to stop a separate statement on the subject.

Although the UK had opposed the communique’s use of any reparatory justice wording, it must now concede that it will contain three complete paragraphs summarizing the Commonwealth’s stance.

Caricom officials, who speak for Caribbean countries, have attempted to broaden the scope of the problem to include both the Atlantic and Pacific slave trades.

Most member nations “share common historical experiences in relation to this abhorrent trade, chattel enslavement, and the debilitation and dispossession of indigenous peoples,” according to the draft communique. Additionally, it makes explicit reference to tactics like “blackbirding,” in which Pacific Islanders were tricked or kidnapped and forced to work in low-wage or forced labor in colonies throughout the region.

The next Commonwealth summit is set to take place in the Caribbean, maybe in Antigua and Barbuda, in two years, and diplomats now expect reparatory justice to be a major issue.

Commonwealth leaders have been calling for the UK to apologize and pay reparations for its past involvement in the slave trade, believed to be in the trillions, in the run-up to this year’s summit.