With the Caribbean facing challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and the inequitable structure of international bodies, the time has come to look at reparations beyond just dollars and cents, says Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM, David Comissiong.
Delivering the 5th annual Nelson Mandela Day Lecture to a virtual audience in Australia, Comissiong said that reparatory justice must be a campaign that is designed to produce the just society internationally as well.
He explained that the region, which has a host of vulnerabilities, must formulate a demand for a fundamental transformation of the current power relations which are rooted in colonialism.
“Please take note then that this international dimension of reparations has implications for the restructuring of such important international institutions as the United Nations Security Council, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank – institutions that were established when the black nations of this world were still colonies, and that therefore do not sufficiently contain our presence and influence within their structures,” he contended. (CLM)
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