CARICOM Renews Push for Reparatory Justice at Barbados Conference

CARICOM Secretary-General Carla Barnett has reaffirmed the bloc’s call for reparatory justice for the genocide and dispossession of Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of Africans.

Speaking Thursday at the opening of the Third CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations in St. Philip, Barbados, Barnett said reparations go beyond financial compensation to include recognition, accountability, and transformation.

The three-day conference, themed “Reparatory Justice as the Coming Enlightenment,” drew representatives from the Caribbean, Africa, the diaspora, and international organizations.

It followed the UN’s adoption of Resolution A/RES/80/250 in March 2026, which called the trafficking and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans “the gravest crime against humanity.”

Barnett cited the revised CARICOM Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice and progress by the CARICOM Reparations Commission, established in 2013 under Professor Hilary Beckles. Twelve member states now have national reparations bodies.

She also highlighted growing CARICOM-African Union cooperation, including the 2025 Addis Ababa Declaration, and praised civil society, Indigenous peoples, and youth for sustaining the movement.