The United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognise the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as "the gravest crime against humanity", a move advocates hope will pave the way for healing and justice.

On the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the CARICOM Reparations Commission pays tribute to the 15 million African men, women, and children who endured the horrors of chattel enslavement for over three hundred years in the Americas. We remember the untold suffering caused by the trauma of the Middle Passage, the brutality of slavery and the despair of being denied their humanity, their freedom and their dignity.

When slavery in the British Caribbean was abolished between 1834 and 1838, the British government authorised a £20-million compensation package for former holders of enslaved people – funded entirely by British taxpayers. This vast sum represented roughly 40 per cent of the national budget at the time, while the formerly enslaved received nothing.

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Carla Barnett, is urging a coordinated global approach to reparatory justice, stressing that the issue must be tied directly to development outcomes rather than framed as charity.