Barbados prime minister announces manifesto for slavery reparations

Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, on Thursday at the conference on the next steps in seeking compensation from the UK and European countries for slavery. Photograph: Ernest Ankomah/ View image in fullscreen Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, on Thursday at the conference on the next steps in seeking compensation from the UK and European countries for slavery. Photograph: Ernest Ankomah/ Barbados prime minister announces manifesto for slavery reparations Updated document, which emphasises harm done to African women, is being considered ’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 . 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. Ghana to advance reparatory justice at first major gathering since landmark UN resolution 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”. The draft, which has been seen , asserts that climate justice and slavery reparations are “inextricably linked”, and stresses the need for a plan to support Indigenous people who were in the Caribbean when Europeans arrived and were the subject of genocides. But it does not specify an amount that Caribbean countries are demanding, describing the plan instead as a “a collective vision for an approach to the pursuit of reparatory justice”. Describing the conference as a “historic moment”, Mottley said: “We live in a world today where people call out people for everything, for misogyny, for sexual assault, for all kinds of behaviour. But yet we have not found the moral courage to state unanimously across humanity that this grave crime against humanity that persisted for centuries ought to be declared so by all. “That others choose to remain silent is a reflection of them, not of us.