Pressure On The Uk to Acknowledge The Evils of Slave Trade Mounts

The UN is encouraging countries to pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people for the injustices suffered during the transatlantic slave trade.UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated that no country has addressed the impact and accounted for the horrors in humane practice.

“Under international human rights law, compensation for any economically assessable damage, as appropriate and proportional to the gravity of the violation and the circumstances of each case, may also constitute a form of reparations,” the report said.“

In the context of historical wrongs and harms suffered as a result of colonialism and enslavement, the assessment of the economic damage can be extremely difficult owing to the length of time passed and the difficulty of identifying the perpetrators and victims.”

The report also stated that difficulty in making a legal claim for compensation , “cannot be the basis for nullifying the existence of underlying legal obligations”.This move has been campaigners in support of reparations for descendants of enslaved people.Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, Bell Ribeiro Addy said, “This is a hugely significant step for the international reparations movement. For decades, grassroots organisations have fought for this level of recognition for their claim.“Those who were enslaved were not in a position to push for reparations, but their descendants who continue to suffer the impact of African chattel slavery are.”

Researcher and member of the UN permanent forum on people of African descent agreed with the motion calling it “a huge step forward”. But she doesn’t believe it’s enough and advised that more should be done to achieve systemic and structural transformation.So far, the Uk’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has not apologized for the Uk’s role in the slave trade.Judge Patrick Robinson, who presided over the trial of the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević, said the international tide on slavery reparations was shifting and called on the UK to change its stance.