SLAVERY: European Union (EU) Says Slavery Was A Crime Against Humanity, Hints At Reparation
The European Union (EU) said on Tuesday 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”. From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported by mostly European ships and sold into slavery.
Leaders of EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) met in Brussels this week for a two-day summit.
The summit’s final statement acknowledged and “profoundly” regretted the “untold suffering inflicted on millions of men, women and children as a result of the transatlantic slave trade.”
It said slavery and the transatlantic slave trade were “appalling tragedies … not only because of their abhorrent barbarism but also in terms of their magnitude. ” Slavery was a “crime against humanity,” it said.
The CARICOM reparations commission “sees the persistent racial victimisation of the descendants of slavery and genocide as the root cause of their suffering today,” the plan said.
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.
The plan demands a repatriation programme that would allow people to relocate to African nations if they want to and support from European nations to tackle public health and economic crises. It also calls for debt cancellation.
Read on Reuters : lnkd.in/gzCwsKp5
Read the CARICOM Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice: lnkd.in/g5X77uQU
Source: Twitter Victor Oladokun
