Africa, Caribbean nations join forces to demand slavery reparations

Momentum is building up between African and Caribbean nations to set up a tribunal that will look into the atrocities suffered by ancestors who have been enslaved by western powers.

The creation of such a tribunal, modeled on Nuremburg trials, is also backed by the US, Reuters reported.

Formally recommended in June by the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, the idea of a special tribunal has been explored further at African and Caribbean regional bodies, said Eric Phillips, a vice-chair of the slavery reparations commission for the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which groups 15 member states.

Advocates, including within Caricom and the African Union (AU), are working to build wider backing for the idea among UN members, Phillips said.

Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, is in favor of the push for a tribunal, Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said, saying the country would support the idea “until it becomes a reality”.

Between 1501 and 1867, nearly 13 million African people were kidnapped, forced onto European and American ships, and trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean to be enslaved, abused, and forever separated from their homes, families, ancestors, and cultures.