ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC) — The second Caribbean Community (Caricom) Conference on Reparations began here on Sunday night with reparations activists joining political leaders in calling for justice for a region that is still reeling from the social and economic effects from the transatlantic slave trade.

"I implore all of us to see ourselves as working towards one aim, one destiny -- the search for justice and repair of our societies; societies which were disfigured by colonisation; societies that continue to suffer the legacies of enslavement and native genocide," said PJ Patterson, former prime minister of Jamaica.

"We need all hands on deck, wherever we are located in the west, in the north, in the east, because the tentacles of colonial injustices were spread far and wide and their legacies continue to be far-reaching to this very day.

"The masses of Caribbean people are still to be brought on board the reparation train. They are stuck at the halts and stations all around the region and indeed in the Diaspora, waiting for reason to board. If we do not wish to have them waiting indefinitely on the platform, or worse boarding the wrong train, we need to use this forum to settle all the unanswered questions around the struggle for reparatory justice," Patterson said.

Patterson was among several speakers lending his voice to the cause. University of the West Indies Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles, and Dr Julius Garvey, son of CONTINUE TO FULL STORY