Caricom Reparations Commission questions status of Overseas Territories

The Caricom Reparations Commission has included the British and other Overseas Territories(OTs) in the region in a Revised Reparations Manifesto it is now presenting to the United Kingdom government and the United Nations as it ramps up its lobbying.

A delegation from the Commission has embarked on another round of negotiations following the presentation of the document at the recent Caricom(Caribbean Community) Heads of Government summit in St Lucia.

Representatives from the Overseas Territories were present at the Caricom summit in their various capacities - as full member in the case of Montserrat, and associate members in the case of the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands delegation was headed by Hon. Isaac Rankine, Minister for Youth, Sports, Culture, Heritage, Social Development and Innovation. Bermuda, also an associate member, is currently holding local consultations on full Caricom membership.

According to the Caricom Secretariat, Heads of Government have approved the Revised CARICOM 10-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice: A Manifesto for the Coming Enlightenment, reaffirming the Community’s commitment to advancing reparatory justice.

It said the revised plan, developed by the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC), outlines the Region’s next phase of advocacy and collaboration to advance the reparations agenda.

The case for reparations is in part based on comparing the compensation paid to plantation owners when slavery was abolished. The British government at the time took out a loan of £20 million to compensate them for loss of earnings, which it only finished paying in 2015. The enslaved were not compensated.

Head of the Commission, Professor Hillary Beckles, who is also Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, said: “For 300 years, did we have a legal case for reparatory justice? The answer now is yes. The case has been made. There’s nothing more to discuss whether there’s a case or not. The question now is implementation and demand.”

THE OVERSEAS TERRITORIES CONNECTION

In a media briefing during their UK visit last week, he also outlined how the Overseas Territories now fit into the framework.

“We object to the fact that in the Virgin Islands, our people cannot make fundamental decisions because they have to consult with the British governor and consult with Downing Street to make decisions … and we want to have it uprooted as part of the enlightenment that we’re calling for – democracy, freedom, sovereignty for everyone,” he stated.

The status of the French Caribbean outposts in the region was also referenced.

“We object to the fact that when we leave our independent islands and we arrive in Martinique, there’s a sign at the airport that says, ‘Welcome to France’,” he observed.

Martinique and other French territories in the region are fully integrated into France by their choice. For the Dutch Caribbean, coming out of a referendum in 2010 that saw the disbanding of the then Netherlands Antilles, the smaller islands of St Eustatius, Bonaire and Saba chose a status of direct overseas territories or “special municipalities” - also called public entities, within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They can vote in Dutch national and European elections. The other Dutch Caribbean territories of Aruba, Curacao and St Maarten opted to remain under the Dutch flag but in an arrangement quite similar to that of the UK’s Overseas Territories.

For their part, the UK’s OTs have chosen to remain under the British flag with devolved local governments and considerable local autonomy, but with a British-appointed Governor from the UK. Most aspects of foreign relations and security remain within the remit of the British government, and the option of independence is available through negotiations with the UK and a local referendum.

There have been several inquiries into the constitutional relations between the UK and its territories, the most recent undertaken by the UK House of Lords earlier this year. A number of the UK’s Caribbean OTs are presently engaged in another round of negotiations on issues of constitutional reform, much of it revolving around transferring some of the powers of the Governor to the locally elected administration.

The proposition of the Caricom Reparations Commission regarding the OTs is already generating much debate.

In one example, writing in the UK Telegraph newspaper, Tony Sewell, a black British education consultant and Member of the House of Lords (who also chaired a UK Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in the UK), sounded a note of caution.

“As someone who has worked and lived in the region, there is no appetite from those who live in a country such as the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands to give up their attachment to Britain. All point to the disaster case of post-independent countries like Jamaica and Trinidad, awash with crime and economic fragility,” he opined.

JAMAICA TO PETITION KING CHARLES

Meanwhile, in addition to the visit by the Caricom Reparations Commission, a separate delegation from Jamaica will be in the UK in September to directly lobby King Charles on the issue of post-slavery and post-empire reparatory justice.

Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Olivia Grange, said the objective is to petition the British King seek advice from the judicial committee of the London-based Privy Council on the issue of restitution to Jamaica for slavery and its enduring legacy.

“We intend to petition King Charles on 6 September – an historic day. On this date in 1781, the Zong slave ship departed West Africa for Jamaica with 442 enslaved Africans,” she stated.

Historical records show that during its journey, the ship encountered difficulties and around 140 of the kidnapped Africans bound for enslavement in Jamaica were thrown overboard. Insurance claims were subsequently made by the ship’s owners for ‘loss of cargo’