Caribbean countries celebrate today the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery through various actions to demand reparations from the former European slave metropolis and eliminate colonial remnants existing in the region.
The event, established by the United Nations, takes place every December 2, the date in 1949 when the “Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others” was approved.
In recent months, the Caribbean region has reinforced its demands for eradicating the consequences of the historical crimes against humanity committed against the peoples of the area.
This is not a distant, resolved, and closed issue, as the head of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Reparations Commission, Hilary Beckles, pointed out on the occasion of Emancipation Day in the Caribbean area on August 1.
“Europe has a debt to our people, and now is the time to pay,” said the also vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies.
For the Caribbean people, the effects of that time still linger. It is necessary to restore democratic rights and fair compensation for the damage caused by the European ex-metropoles.
Since 1993, the Caricom Reparations Commission has been seeking compensation for the genocide of indigenous people and the enslavement of Africans committed by the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
The issue is included in the United Nations’ agenda, which celebrates every March 25 the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The growing trend towards emancipation in the Caribbean was reinforced this year with Barbados’ decision to become a Republic and to abandon its status as a constitutional monarchy on November 30, 2021, on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of its independence.
“The time has come to leave our colonial past behind completely, after more than half a century as an independent country,” said Governor General Sandra Mason in announcing the event before parliament. (https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Caribbean-Countries-Insist-Europe-Pay-Its-Debts-Over-Slavery-20201202-0023.html)
