Apia, Samoa (26th October 2024)- Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa concludes with agreement “that the time had come for a conversation about reparatory justice.” Caribbean leaders had insisted, despite resistance from the United Kingdom, that the Commonwealth family was an appropriate venue to discuss this issue which affected so many Commonwealth countries. In the end, there was agreement on a mechanism to progress those discussions. This will take place within the UK-Caribbean Forum, a biennial bilateral framework between Caricom and the United Kingdom that is used to discuss matters of mutual interest.
The main focus of the meeting was resilience and climate. However, Caribbean leaders emphasised that many of today’s current and continuous problems are linked to the legacies of chattel slavery, the transatlantic slave trade, and their enduring harms. “I am pleased with the respectful and considered way in which leaders treated with this important matter of reparatory justice in the Executive Session and the Retreat,” said FM Douglas.” FM Douglas added, “I welcome the decision to continue to study it, to prepare a report and to discuss it again next year. Reparatory justice has never been solely about financial compensation. It is also about righting the historical wrongs that continue to injure the present and future of the descendants of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and about animating practical responses to address the structural inequities that plague our region,” the Rt. Hon Dr Douglas concluded.
Heads also issued a Leaders’ Statement, agreed a Communiqué, an Ocean Declaration, and elected the Commonwealth Secretariat next Secretary General, the Hon. Shirley Botchwey, FM of Ghana.
Dr. Douglas leaves Samoa on Sunday for St. Kitts-Nevis.
