Caribbean states are considering legal action in a bid to force the UK to pay slavery reparations linked to “racial discrimination” treaties as first defined by the United Nations.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley is hosting a conference this week to discuss strategies to extract compensation and cash settlements, suggesting legal redress obtained through international courts as one option, the Telegraph reports.
As Breitbart News reported, Barbados previously nominated $4.9 trillion (£3.9 trillion) as a sum for reparations from the west.
Now Mottley is telling supporters the time has come to “stop being advocates in a movement, and start being advocates in a case”, claiming campaigners could have an “in” with the courts.
The Telegraph has learnt legal experts in the Caribbean are looking into a potential reparations lawsuit against Britain on the basis of U.N. treaties covering racism. Its report notes:
This strategy, if pursued by the Caribbean Community or partners in Africa, would involve bringing a case to the International Court of Justice claiming Britain to be in breach of treaty obligations by not paying out compensation.
Caribbean nations have been seeking talks with the King that address the topic of reparations.
Campaigners characterise historic transAtlantic slavery – which Britain led the world in abolishing in 1834 – as a crime that needs redress, and the UK is also signed up to the U.N. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
A U.N. member state could sue Britain on the grounds that it has allegedly breached this treaty, although opposition to the move is also making clear its position as Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage has made clear.
In March this year, 123 nations voted for a landmark U.N. resolution that defined slavery as the gravest crime against humanity.
The UK was one of several European countries that abstained from voting.
But, last month, a U.N. committee on the elimination of racial discrimination said countries were legally obliged to consider reparations for the transAtlantic slave trade and take other measures to address the enduring legacy of racial discrimination.
International demands for slavery reparations are being led by Africa reigniting the debate over compensation claims from former colonial powers. (Photo by Ufuk Celal Guzel/Anadolu via Getty Images)
History shows after becoming the first nation in the world to outlaw the slave trade, with the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807 and the owning of slaves with the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, the British Empire acted unilaterally to stamp out slavery throughout the world, as Breitbart News reported.
The UK spent blood and treasure working to restore order and defeat the evil trade in humans.
File/Original caption/A British naval officer overhauling an Arab dhow in Zanzibar during attempts by Great Britain to put an end to the slave trade, circa 1870. The pursuit of these fast-sailing slave-dhows required both enterprise and courage on the part of Her Majesty ‘s officers. By W. H. Overend. (Hulton Archive/Getty)
The Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron alone freed some 150,000 African slaves after capturing an estimated 1,600 slave trade ships between 1807 and 1860.
In total, 1,587 men died on the West Africa Squadron during efforts to stamp out slavery.
Britain was also instrumental in combating the Barbary and East African slave trades as well with history showing just how widespread indentured servitude was across all cultures.
From the 16th to the 19th centuries, North African Barbary pirates and Ottoman slavers captured an estimated one million to 1.25 million European Christians from ships and coastal towns in England, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Iceland.
Transported captives faced hard labor, galley slavery, or inclusion in harems and domestic service unless ransomed.