UN chief calls on world leaders to pay reparations for slavery and “help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination”

In order to achieve justice, United Nations officials proceed to call for justice for Africans and people of African descent.

During the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the UN leader spoke in favor of reparations for slavery, calling it essential to combat systemic racism.

“We call for a framework of reparative justice that helps overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in an announcement on March 25: – reports NBC News.

Guterres continued: “We call for the space and conditions necessary for healing, repair and justice. “Descendants of enslaved Africans and people of African descent continue to fight for equal rights and freedoms around the world.”

The statement followed a UN report released last September that found that no country has comprehensively handled its past or addressed its contemporary legacy of brutal displacement from Africa of an estimated 25 to 30 million people in greater than 400 years, 25 to 30 million people, as reported by Reuters.

The UN report proposed slavery reparations as a way to compensate for harmful acts against enslaved Africans.

The report stated that “under international human rights law, compensation for any economically assessable damage, appropriate and proportionate to the gravity of the violation and the circumstances of each case, may also constitute a form of reparation.”

As the report states: “In the context of historical wrongs and wrongs attributable to colonialism and enslavement, assessing economic damage will be extremely difficult due to the passage of time and the problem of identifying perpetrators and victims. “

During the UN General Assembly, Hilary Beckles, chairwoman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) reparations commission, declared: “This is a move that will signal the triumph of good over evil,” NBC reported.

Caribbean Community, CARICOM compensation commission provided guidelines for reparations, including debt relief, addressing the general public health and illiteracy crises, issued a “sincere official apology from European governments” and addressed “the enormous psychological trauma among African descendants.”

“Over 400 years of slavery, more than 10 million Africans were brought to the Caribbean,” reads the CARICOM report. “For over 400 years, Africans and their descendants have been classified in law as non-humans, chattel, property and immovable property. They have been denied recognition as members of the human family by the laws passed by the parliaments and palaces of Europe.”

According to several news reports, a recent poll conducted by the Recovery Campaign, which formulates reparations plans for CARICOM nations, revealed that 4 in 10 people within the UK agreed that the Caribbean should receive financial compensation. Additionally, 3 out of 5 people agreed that an official apology was due.

Meanwhile, within the United States, city, county, state and national governments or private institutions have proposed forms of reparations.

Some examples of compensation include individual monetary payments; removing monuments and streets named after owners and defenders of slavery; settlements; scholarships; waiving fees and land compensation related to independence; apologizing and acknowledging an injustice and naming a constructing after someone.

In a push for racial justice, in late December New York approved a commission to examine the history of slavery and possible redress. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill, authorizing the commission to study the opposed effects of slavery on African Americans. The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Michaelle Solages, is available in the wake of the 2022 racially motivated mass shooting in Buffalo.

A growing number of local and state governments are exploring ways to address the problem of slavery reparations payments. California, for example, established a commission and approved an inventory of recommendations, akin to creating an agency that will set appropriate pay and issue public apologies.

The California Reparations Task Force is the state’s largest-ever initiative to examine reparations issues. However, commissions examining compensation were established mainly at the town or county level.

Still, cities like Evanston, Illinois, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Providence, Rhode Island, conducted investigations and worked to create and implement programs under the auspices of reparations.