Input to CERD General Recommendation on Reparations

The Repair Campaign aims to amplify voices calling for reparations in the Caribbean and to advocate for former colonial powers to commit to reparatory justice. Framed within the CARICOM 10-Point Reparation Plan (TTP), and in collaboration with the University of the West Indies, we have gathered data from a wide selection of stakeholders in each of the 15 CARICOM states to identify tangible interventions that provide the greatest reparative value as one method of addressing the ongoing harm caused by the system of chattel enslavement and colonial rule. We contribute to the discourse by tracing the ongoing harm caused by the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans (TTA), aiming to provide CERD with complementary information based on our research, including the opinions of communities and grassroots organisations in the region.

The Repair Campaign has been invited to submit an input which includes a commentary on the rationale and objectives of the General Recommendation. Our input addresses the need to address the historical legacies of TTA and enslavement, clarifies the relationship between the system and contemporary structural discrimination and inequality, and describes the direct relationships between offending States and their institutions in their responsibility towards post-colonial States. Our recommendations aim to provide insight into the legislative measures and frameworks that may be adopted by States parties to fulfil the requirements under ICERD regarding reparations to people of African descent.

As a guiding principle, and given the invaluable insight gained through ongoing reparatory justice discussions with CSOs in the region, we reiterate the need of the General Recommendation to ensure the “effective participation of people of African descent and their communities in these processes” as expressed in the 2024 OHCHR Reparatory justice for people of African descent report and A/HRC/47/53.¹ Reinforcing international human rights standards and defining adequate and effective reparatory measures must be guided by the self-stated needs of affected populations.

Responsibility and obligations

Recent scholarship² on the responsibility of colonising States towards post-colonial States builds upon work arguing that, despite only being formally being ruled as illegal through the International Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade of 1926, slavery has always been a crime

under international law;^{3 4} and the related “crimes and devastations engendered by the traffic in African slaves” had already been acknowledged in the Brussels Conference Act of 1890.⁵ The Repair Campaign, however, emphasises the need to supplement the legal obligations of offending States in the General Recommendation with a reaffirmation of the additional and complementary moral responsibility of these States and institutions towards people of African descent, as is also expressed in Point 1 of the CARICOM TPP. Aboriginal peoples, Jewish people, the Mau Mau, the Māori people, and Native American peoples have all received apology and/or compensation for crimes committed against them, while the descendants of enslaved Africans have been denied these measures by some offending States. Reparations are themselves tools which contribute to the non-recurrence of crimes, and this discrimination contributes to ongoing harms and erects barriers to reparatory justice in all its forms.

Historical and contemporary injustices

For offending States, moral responsibility for historical injustice is connected thorough unbroken line of liability held both by governments and their adjacent institutions. In a recent brief to the Church of England, The Repair Campaign identified 128 members of the clergy were responsible for compensation claims over 22,471 enslaved people, with the total associated awards of £51,000,000 in today’s currency. This comes in addition to estates outright owned by the Church including the Codrington and Consett Plantations in Barbados, as well the direct financial ties in the commerce in enslaved people through its Queen Anne’s Bounty investments in the South Sea Company, an enterprise explicitly designed for the trafficking of enslaved Africans. The Church’s investment in the company is equivalent to £443 million today. As an institution intimately tied to the government of the United Kingdom, with archbishops and bishops participating in state institutions through the House of Lords, we raise this as an example of other bodies which should also be acknowledged as State-adjacent and not to be ignored when discussing responsibility for unjust enrichment and harm, and their moral obligations with respect to this enrichment.

For the descendants of enslaved Africans, we also wish to support the conclusion that contemporary systems of racial hierarchy are the progeny of the system of chattel enslavement through the example of historical discrimination in land tenure, and the direct effect of these policies on contemporary inequities. Some enslaved Africans were successful in escaping plantations and settled in remote areas, often unsuited to agriculture, and were marginalised economically and excluded from formal land ownership. We note the persisting disadvantages faced by people of African descent through the issue of ‘illegal’-informal settlements in several CARICOM States and the practice of ‘squatting’. In the Jamaican example, an estimated 40% of land parcels have no registered titles under the Registration of Titles Act (1889).⁶ Difficulties in land access have led 20% of the population, approximately 560,000 people, to live in squatter settlements where land is illegally or irregularly possessed.⁷ These barriers can be traced directly to the legacy of chattel enslavement and contribute to ongoing systems of social stratification and racial discrimination. In consultations held by The Repair Campaign, a diverse sample of stakeholders emphasised the urgency of land titling measures as one effective and immediate step towards repair.

Recommendations for reparatory justice measures under ICERD

The Repair Campaign has sought to document action which would constitute effective and appropriate measures for reparatory justice among people of African descent. Centring individuals and communities who continue to be affected by the harms of chattel slavery and persisting inequality, our rapporteur team visited all 15 CARICOM countries and spoke with over 280 people from government parties, opposition leaders and civil organisations including Indigenous communities, Rastafari groups, youth groups, women’s organisations, and religious leaders, among others. Reparations must be tangible and articulated by those who suffer ongoing harm caused by enduring discrimination and marginalisation.

Following from the provisions of ICERD and General Recommendation No. 34 of 2011, stating the fundamental right that “people of African descent shall enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international standards, in conditions of equality and without any discrimination,” we recommend measures to be considered for discussion. These have been identified as some of the most critical challenges expressed by stakeholders across the Caribbean, and ones which may be considered within potential legislative frameworks for reparatory justice:

• Land titling. Land reform and titling was one of the most consistent concerns expressed across the discussions conducted by The Repair Campaign, and the facilitation of ownership enters within para. 4 of General Recommendation no. 34 and the right to property. Questions of land tenure are intimately related to reparatory justice, given that colonialism, enslavement, and indenture resulted in the appropriation and unequal distribution of land by colonial powers: after emancipation, former enslaved persons were not granted formal titles, and direct interventions are needed to address the ongoing disadvantages caused by this exclusion. Legislative barriers to ownership have prevented the descendants of enslaved Africans, particularly the rural poor, from accessing opportunities for inter-generational wealth creation and economic empowerment. Stakeholders acknowledged the economic and structural challenges faced by governments in facilitating the titling process; however, existing plans were seen as insufficient to resolve the varied and costly challenges around land reform. Additional measures in affirmative action were identified in providing training for land ownership, potentially to include farming and regulating utilities to facilitate the right to adequate housing.

• Civil society groups across CARICOM emphasised the need for Afro-conscious education as a measure of reparatory justice under Article 7 of ICERD. Colonialism erased the culture of enslaved peoples who were forcibly brought to the region, promoting European culture and deliberately distancing people from the sources of their heritage. Reparatory justice includes measures to reverse the impact of this severing of cultural knowledge, as stakeholders have identified a lack of robust Caribbean and African history programmes at all educational levels. They stressed that curricula should be developed to reinforce indigenous knowledge pertaining to the evolution of national cultures, as well as institutionalising the ethos of Afro-consciousness and mutual respect for all individuals, regardless of racial identity, and at all levels of the education system. This may be undertaken through curriculum reforms by national and regional educations councils.

• Cultural memorialisation. The right to cultural identity is protected under ICERD, and stakeholders consistently emphasised how colonialism caused the destruction of cultures and histories, leaving a gap of knowledge about the history of enslaved peoples and an inability to comprehensively appreciate and address both colonial history and its legacy of trauma. Reparatory justice is inextricably linked to memorialisation, and measures to implement this right through, among other actions, the reclamation of records and artefacts held in overseas collections, including governmental, religious, and cultural institutions. National legislation may be pursued to commence the process of reclaiming artefacts outside of country under the UNESCO 1970 Convention to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural goods. Tangibly, this will also allow for the reconstruction of family histories as essential elements of psychic repair.

• Affirm that cultural rights under ICERD should include the recognition and protection of Creole languages, whose speakers face discrimination in favour of colonial languages in government and education.

• Recognise that the high prevalence of mental health disorders, violence, gender-based violence, and suicide have roots in the severe intergenerational trauma for the descendants of enslaved peoples, as well as in the racial discrimination they face in contemporary societies. Centring rehabilitation and mental health services as a special measure for repair must be a key area of focus to ensure equitable participation in public life.

• Consider the intersection between the disadvantages faced by African descendants and Indigenous Peoples, most tangibly seen through the disadvantages faced by the Maroon and Garifuna communities as descendants of both Indigenous and enslaved Africans.

Recognise climate justice as an increasingly central element of reparatory justice. The exploitation of resources and monocrop economies instituted by colonial powers caused depletion of soil and the destruction of ecosystems, including natural barriers to climate events. Post-colonial, Caribbean, and Small Island Developing States are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events, and the structural inequalities faced by people of African descent compound their vulnerability to dislocation, economic damages, and hinder their resilience and recovery.