UK expected to confront 'astonishing' slavery reparation claims, reports say
A coalition of 15 Caribbean nations is expected to address the issue of slavery reparations during the forthcoming Commonwealth summit. Read Full Article at RT.com.
TroibNews 
Caribbean governments are set to bring the topic of compensation for the slave trade to the forefront at the upcoming Commonwealth summit, according to the Daily Mail.
A coalition of Caribbean nations intends to demand reparations totaling “an astonishing £200 billion” from King Charles III and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, as reported by the Daily Mail on Saturday.
The nations are said to have reached a unanimous agreement to discuss slaveholding practices at the biannual meeting, scheduled to take place in Samoa on October 21.
The report details that Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, who is spearheading the reparations movement among the Caribbean states, met with King Charles in London earlier this month for preliminary discussions ahead of the 56-nation summit. Mottley is reported to have commended the monarch for stating two years prior that slavery is “a conversation whose time has come,” although Buckingham Palace has not released further information regarding these “private discussions.”
In a speech to the UN General Assembly last month, Mottley called for an additional decade to “complete the unfinished work and address the matter of reparations for slavery and colonialism.” This year, she urged the UK to pay $4.9 trillion in reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade.
For several years, the UK has been faced with sporadic demands for reparations related to its involvement in the slave trade. These demands have intensified recently, particularly following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Revd Dr. Michael Banner, the Dean of Trinity College Cambridge, estimated that the UK owes the Caribbean £205 billion in reparations. Additionally, a 2023 study by the economic consulting firm Brattle Group suggested that Britain’s reparations debt could be nearly £19 trillion due to three centuries of slaveholding.
In August, UN judge Patrick Robinson noted that the UK cannot disregard calls for slavery reparations, emphasizing that the figure calculated by Brattle Group was an “underestimation” of the harm inflicted by slaveholding practices.
Earlier in April 2023, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak publicly rejected the idea of offering an apology or reparations for the slave trade, stating that “trying to unpick our history is not the right way forward and is not something we will focus our energies on.”
Britain's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade dates back to 1562, and by the 1730s, the nation had become the largest slave-trading state in the world. The slave trade was abolished in British territories in 1807, followed by the abolition of enslaved labor in 1833.
Frederick R Cook contributed to this report for TROIB News
A coalition of Caribbean nations intends to demand reparations totaling “an astonishing £200 billion” from King Charles III and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, as reported by the Daily Mail on Saturday.
The nations are said to have reached a unanimous agreement to discuss slaveholding practices at the biannual meeting, scheduled to take place in Samoa on October 21.
The report details that Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, who is spearheading the reparations movement among the Caribbean states, met with King Charles in London earlier this month for preliminary discussions ahead of the 56-nation summit. Mottley is reported to have commended the monarch for stating two years prior that slavery is “a conversation whose time has come,” although Buckingham Palace has not released further information regarding these “private discussions.”
In a speech to the UN General Assembly last month, Mottley called for an additional decade to “complete the unfinished work and address the matter of reparations for slavery and colonialism.” This year, she urged the UK to pay $4.9 trillion in reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade.
For several years, the UK has been faced with sporadic demands for reparations related to its involvement in the slave trade. These demands have intensified recently, particularly following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Revd Dr. Michael Banner, the Dean of Trinity College Cambridge, estimated that the UK owes the Caribbean £205 billion in reparations. Additionally, a 2023 study by the economic consulting firm Brattle Group suggested that Britain’s reparations debt could be nearly £19 trillion due to three centuries of slaveholding.
In August, UN judge Patrick Robinson noted that the UK cannot disregard calls for slavery reparations, emphasizing that the figure calculated by Brattle Group was an “underestimation” of the harm inflicted by slaveholding practices.
Earlier in April 2023, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak publicly rejected the idea of offering an apology or reparations for the slave trade, stating that “trying to unpick our history is not the right way forward and is not something we will focus our energies on.”
Britain's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade dates back to 1562, and by the 1730s, the nation had become the largest slave-trading state in the world. The slave trade was abolished in British territories in 1807, followed by the abolition of enslaved labor in 1833.
Frederick R Cook contributed to this report for TROIB News
