National Afrikan People’s Parliament
‘People Empowered for Self-Determination!’
‘Taking Responsibility, Effecting Solutions!
The iNAPP Legal & Constitutional Sub-Committee
Community Law Study, Dialogue & Action Circle cordially invites you to:
THE CARICOM REPARATIONS INITIATIVE:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE AFRIKAN REPARATIONS CASE IN BRITAIN?
on:
Tuesday 10th December 2013
from
6.30pm – 9.30pm
At
Queen Mother Moore School
Clapham Methodist Church
Choir Vestry Room
Nelsons Row,
Clapham, SW4 7JR
At the 34th regular CARICOM meeting in Chaguaramas, Trinidad on July, 15 CARICOM states agreed to seek reparations for Afrikan slavery and Native genocide in the Caribbean. Leigh Day & Co., the British human rights law firm are advising CARICOM governments on the possibility of mounting a legal challenge to seek compensation from the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands for the horrors of Afrikan slavery and the genocide of the region’s Native peoples. In this regard, on September 15th, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) opened the first Regional Reparations Conference at St. Vincent and the Grenadines' Victoria Park. The Heads of Government requested each CARICOM Member State to set up its own National Reparations Committee to document the effects of European genocide against the indigenous inhabitants of the region, the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Afrikans, the enslavement of Afrikans, and the colonisation of the country.
In addition, it was mandated that a CARICOM Reparations Commission chaired by Sir Hilary Beckles is constituted to achieve the following aims and objectives:
· Establish the moral, ethical and legal case for the payment of Reparations by the Governments of all the former colonial powers and the relevant institutions in those countries, to the nations and people of the Caribbean Community for the Crimes against Humanity of Native Genocide, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and a racialised system of chattel Slavery;
· Develop and implement a regional strategy to pursue Reparations,
· Conduct consultations to develop proposals on appropriate forms of redress through reparative programmes and projects;
· Assume the responsibility for the preparation and presentation of the legal case for Reparations and highlight the special case of Reparations for Haiti;
Whilst taking up the issue of reparations represents a welcome step, CARICOM’S decision to set up reparations commissions and to enlist the services of Leigh & Day has caused widespread debate in the Caribbean and across the Afrikan Diaspora on the moral, political and legal standing and role of Caribbean states in taking leadership on the issue of reparations given the historic disinterest that such states have shown to the promotion of Afrikan identity-building and consciousness within the governance systems of CARICOM governments as well as ongoing civil, political and human rights abuses which nationals of CARICOM countries face at the hands of governments in the Caribbean.
Furthermore, iNAPP takes the view that the CARICOM approach to reparations for Afrikan slavery and Native Genocide has to be assessed in relation to how it impacts on the pre-existing case for reparations that Afrikans and people of Afrikan descent have in Britain. There are also concerns about what appears to be a reparations strategy motivated by the securing development assistance as well as the privileging of a lawsuit on the basis of the Mau Mau model of seeking a negotiated settlement with the British Government which may not result in securing redressing that will make a difference to ordinary people on the ground. Questions abound concerning how CARICOM will engage the African Union (AU) and Afrikan Diaspora communities who have familiar ties to Afrikans and people of Afrikan descent in the Caribbean, or indeed whether a reparations strategy which does not adopt a Global Afrikan or Pan-Afrikan approach can truly be successful.
In light of these questions and others the Community Law Circle of the iNAPP legal & Constitutional Sub-committee invite you to a consultative discussion which aims to:
· Sensitise attendees to the importance of iNAPP’s role in monitoring the CARICOM reparations case.
· Highlight the dangers to Afrikan people involved in Leigh Day’s role in shaping the CARICOM reparations case.
· Discuss how best we counteract these dangers with advancing local, national and global Afrikan reparations strategy and tactics.
Come along to hear and share more on the following:
o Why should Afrikans and people of Afrikan descent pay attention to the CARICOM reparations initiative?
o What are the benefits and pitfalls of Caribbean governments taking up the issue of reparations?
o What are the pitfalls of CARICOM adopting a reparations strategy based on the case of Mutua & Ors v FCO (Mau Mau settlement)?
o What actions should Afrikans in Britain be taking as a result of CARICOM’S reparations position?
o What is the reparations case of Afrikans and people of Afrikan descent in Britain?
o What are the implications of the British law firm Leigh Day being retained by Caribbean governments to mount a legal challenge for compensation from Britain, France and the Netherlands for the legacy of the Transatlantic Traffic in Enslaved Afrikans?
o What is the Afrikan community’s role in monitoring of Leigh Day Solicitors involvement in the CARICOM reparations case?
o What role should lawyers play in the struggle for reparations?
o What work is the iNAPP doing on reparations?
Please note the attached handout with a list of useful documents pertaining to our reparation discussion
For further information and to confirm your attendance on 10thDecember 2013, please contact: Sister Esther Stanford-Xosei, Co-Chair of the iNAPP Legal & Constitutional Sub-Committee
An Introduction to the NAPP Community Law Study & Dialogue Action Circle
Access to justice for Afrikan individuals, families and our communities requires knowledge, skills and positive attitudes such as the self and community confidence and determination to be able to utilise, engage and transform laws as they impact on our person, families and communities. The Community Law[1]Circle is a space where we aim to do just that - i.e.
· Increase the capacity of participants to deal with legal issues - by improving our critical understanding of the law, discussing when and how best to take action, or by making better choices and avoiding law related problems.
· Raise the legal consciousness[2] and capability[3]of participants so that they are more equipped, knowledgeable, confident and capable of self-determinedly applying law, contesting and resisting unjust law and shaping ‘just' law in their day to day lives.
We will do this by:
· Providing law related education including public legal education
· Providing support to relevant community campaigns
· Engaging in legal and extra-legal community defence initiatives
· Facilitating stimulating dialogues on relevant legal issues among and between
lawyers and those untrained in law.
Our approach for these monthly Community Law Study, Dialogue & Action Circles is to have an engaging and enabling space where conventional lawyers and jailhouse/street/grassroots lawyers, activists, community advocates, educators, youth and community development workers can: dialogue and; exchange ideas as well as strategies and tactics on how best to achieve justice outcomes in our personal lives, our families as well as our inter/intra community relations. So, rather than take a top down approach to just having conventional lawyers lecture at us and present law divorced from its socio-political and economic context, we are taking a bottom up approach to collectively teaching and learning about the law. This approach to law teaching and learning is well known in our communities. In fact, most of the legal gains that we have made by way of the abolitionist movement, the Pan-Afrikan Movement, the Black Power Movement, the Civil Rights and Human and Peoples’ Rights Movements have been made as a result of taking this collective approach to learning and teaching about as well as shaping the law.
In this way, conventional lawyers are invited and encouraged to engage in Community Law ‘groundings’ with our communities where everyone: lawyer or non-lawyer; activist; advocate and other concerned citizens of Global Pan-Afrika in Britain, are encouraged to learn and raise their own legal consciousness and legal capability towards improving law related outcomes, actions, support and campaigns in our communities.
This is not to undermine or denigrate the expertise of conventional lawyers in our midst but rather to encourage conventional lawyers to be more accountable lawyers that serve the interests of their communities and construct advocacy as well as defence strategies that truly meet the unmet justice needs of their clients. In addition, our discussions will enable conventional lawyers and other advocates to become more aware and better informed of the community impact of some of the individual cases that they take up. We are reminded by the late Afrikan American Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.'s notion that our lawyers must rediscover their mission of becoming “legal architects who [proactively] renovate the palaces of justice and redesign the landscape of opportunity in this nation.”
https://theblacklist.net/
Replies
For many years, Blacks have pleaded with their respective governments all over the world, and especially, here in the USA, to compensate the descendants of the enslaved Africans for the centuries of free labor that was extracted from them. Their efforts have been ignored, rejected and repulsed. Even when attempting to develop a discussion about righting an obvious wrong, much energy is being spent by N'Cobra and now CARICOM trying to prick the conscience of those who have no conscience.
So, what should we do? Perhaps N'Cobra, CARICOM and other reparation initiatives should change their tactics. Currently, all of these organizations are going after corporations/governments vs. the Black peoples that they have enslaved and their descendants.
Inevitably, this begins the debate as to how to access the value of the free labor of the enslaved people of Africa in today's currencies. Ultimately, the initiative loses momentum wrestling with this issue because the focus is lost regarding the enormity of the crimes involved. I propose that we change the relationship of the parties involved.
What if CARICOM and all other reparation initiatives go after the individual descendants of those who were involved in and profited from the slave trade vs. Almighty God?
In the Bible, the book they claim to respect, the penalties for kidnapping and murder are spelled out quite clearly. At Exodus 21:12 God's Law says: "He that smitten a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. " The penalty is clear. We do not engage in issues of valuation. We simply demand that the penalty be paid.
At Exodus 21:16, again, God's Law says: "And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." Once again, the penalty is clear. No need to negotiate value. We simply demand that the penalty be paid.
It should be a simple matter of research, given the excellent tools available today, to identify the names of all those who engaged in and profited from the slave trade, their business interests, etc. Identifying the descendants these people and their current business holdings should also a simple matter.
Once the research has been completed, CARICOM and all the other reparation initiatives should begin the process of charging each one of them as ACCESSORIES TO KIDNAPPING AND MURDER.
These crimes have NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.
Now, the reparations movement has boxed these individuals, these corporations and these governments into a corner. Either they obey the law and execute the guilty parties or ignore, not just their own laws, but the Law of God Almighty. If nothing else, we have shifted the burden from us to prove anything to them to find a way to preserve their lives.
Your thoughts, my brothers? Shalom.