The European Union said that Europe’s slave-trading past inflicted “untold suffering” on millions of people and hinted at the need for reparations for what it described as a “crime against humanity,” reports Reuters.
Latin American and Caribbean countries at the EU-CELAC summit last week had pushed Europe to commit to reparations for slavery and achieved a declaration of profound “regret” over the transatlantic slave trade. The calls were led by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who currently serves as president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. Heopened the summit by saying he wanted “reparatory justice for native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies,” reports the Irish Times.
In the statement, adopted by leaders of both sides, the CELAC referred to a 10-point reparation plan by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which, among other measures, urges European countries to formally apologise for slavery. Among other things, the plan calls for support from European nations to tackle public health and economic crises. and debt cancellation.
The CARICOM reparations commission "sees the persistent racial victimisation of the descendants of slavery and genocide as the root cause of their suffering today.”
Caribbean countries are considering approaching the UN’s international court of justice for a legal opinion on demanding compensation from 10 European countries over slavery, Gonsalves said last week. (Guardian)
He said a decision on a formal approach to the ICJ to receive a legal advisory would probably be taken in August at a meeting of a prime ministerial subcommittee on reparations of the Caribbean countries in August led by the Barbados prime minister, Mia Mottley.
The Caribbean and the World
The New York Times editorial board criticizes the U.S. use of sanctions as a foreign policy pressure tool — pointing to their heavy human cost, and signaling the 60 year embargo against Cuba as an example of failure to incentivize change.
Human Rights
Jamaica’s Court of Appeal threw out the government's appeal against a Supreme Court ruling that the detention of five men under the State of Emergency in 2020 was unconstitutional. Some of them were in custody for more than a year without being charged, reports the Jamaica Gleaner.
Migration
CARICOM’s announcement earlier this month that it would look to establish “free movement for all Caricom nationals” by next year, “marks the potential for a new era in Caribbean integration and mobility,” writes Jordi Amaral in the Americas Migration Brief. While Haiti will not be included, “expanded free movement will be key for facilitating protection to those in need. This is particularly true for those impacted by ever-growing environmental disasters, as well as those displaced by slower-onset impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels and drought.”
The latest Synthesis Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights that climate and weather extremes are increasingly driving displacement across all regions. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, disasters led to 32.6 million internal displacements in 2022, the highest ever recorded. (IOM)
Jamaican group Freedom Imaginaries is calling for the halting of deportation proceedings against more than 30 Haitians. (Loop News) The group of 27 people includes eight children, including two babies who arrived two weeks ago in a boat, after a 14-day journey, reports the Jamaica Observer.
Public Security
Five people, including a child, were killed in a mass shooting in St Vincent and the Grenadines capital Kingston, last week. It is the latest episode that forms part of a years-long trend of increasing homicides. (Loop News, ANN)
Indigenous Rights
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures in favour of Guyana’s Indigenous Chinese Landing community, who it said are “currently at serious, urgent risk of suffering irreparable harm to their human rights”. (Stabroek News)
Climate and Environmental Justice
Ecologically destructive luxury development construction on Barbuda is advancing, despite legal actions aimed at defending local communities — the Global Legal Action Network reports.
The discourse on loss and damage largely centres around the ‘economic’ impacts of climate change. But non-economic impacts − from the strain on social bonds to debt-induced anxiety − are equally devastating. Research using a methodology based on locally identified values sought to deepen understanding of these intangible losses and damages from climate change — International Institute for Environment and Development
UN Women’s Gender-Responsive Climate Budgeting in the Caribbean for Enabling Gender-Responsive Disaster Recovery, Climate and Environmental Resilience in the Caribbean countries aims to help stakeholders close a significant gender and climate budget gap at the national and sectoral level.
The Jamaican government’s decision to waive the bauxite levy for Windalco because it will save jobs belies the negative economic impact of the company’s land grabs, bauxite mining, alumina refining, mud lakes, and constant pollution of the Rio Cobre, since the 1950s, argues Esther Figueroa in the Jamaica Gleaner.
A new campaign by the Oil and Gas Governance Network calls on Guyana’s government to respect the rule of law and Guyanese interests. (Kaieteur News)
LGTBQ and Women’s Rights
A UNDP commissioned LGBTI Survey for Barbados found that about 55% of respondents do not believe that government officials support and protect
LGBTQ+ people and very few feel protected under the Barbados Constitution and laws.
Allegations of sexual abuse against a Guyanese government official — and indignation they provoked — should be harnessed to strengthen women’s rights in Guyana, according the Guyana Human Rights Association which said that sexual violence towards younger females is at epidemic levels. (Stabroek News)
Economics and Finance
Countries are on course to lose nearly US$5 trillion in tax to multinational corporations and wealthy individuals using tax havens to underpay tax over the next 10 years, according to the Tax Justice Network. Lower income countries, which have historically had little to no say on global tax rules, continue to be hit harder by global tax abuse.
Many Caribbean leaders and financial experts say that international safeguards against money laundering and tax evasion unfairly afflict Caribbean countries “creating a possible double standard that causes them to suffer disproportionate harm to their economies and reputations,” reports Americas Quarterly.
Culture
The United Nations declared August 11th as “World Steelpan Day,” celebrating the musical instrument which originated in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1930’s and is the only new instrument invented in the 20th century. (Caricom Today, Loop News)
Paseo Pasarela is an Anti-High fashion show that is making Puerto Rico’s style scene more inclusive, reports Refinery 29. (Via Repeating Islands)
The declaration comes after just five years of campaigning, “a phenomenal achievement of planning and execution”, according to the Trinidad Express.
Opportunities
Call for projects aiming to drive sustainable development, tackle climate change, and enhance environmental resilience across the region — The Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator
Apply — Training module Caribbean Small States and the Diplomacies of Climate Change: Negotiations in Practice — University of the West Indies — Register
Events
Webinar — "Is the death penalty the solution to crime? The Death Penalty and Human Rights" — Caribbean Centre for Human Rights