Barbados prime minister announces manifesto for slavery reparations

Barbados’s prime minister, Mia Mottley, has announced a new manifesto from Caribbean leaders asserting the “moral, ethical and legal case” for reparations over damage caused by hundreds of years of enslavement. Mottley was speaking at a “historic” conference in Ghana to advance the push for reparatory justice after the United Nations adopted a landmark resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. The manifesto, which she distributed at the conference, is an update of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) 10-point plan for reparations from former colonial powers. It introduces new issues including the disproportionate impact of slavery on girls and women. The plan includes a new specific call for compensation for gender-based violence, referencing data that suggests “women represented approximately 30% of the estimated 20 million Africans forcefully transported across the Atlantic Ocean”. It also mentions estimates that at least 1.2 million enslaved women experienced sexual violence. Highlighting the update, Mottley said that “the compensation for gender-based violence and assault on family” is “no different from the compensation that has been awarded to other nationalities such as the Japanese”. …