By Alecia Smith\Jamaican Observer
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
The University of the West Indies (The UWI) is patting itself on the back for the leadership role it has taken in the global reparatory justice movement, boasting of its influence in getting previous slave owners to begin making amends for this atrocity.
Vice-chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, told the institution’s University Council at its annual meeting on Friday, held virtually, that during academic year 2022/2023, some institutions and families in Europe that had participated in these crimes against humanity responded to “our call to come to the fore to make the relevant apologies to the people of the Caribbean and Africa and participate in a reparatory justice conversation”.
…“We took the opportunity to provide leadership that had been expected of us by Caricom. The heads of Government have established a Caricom Reparations Commission and they have asked the university to take leadership on this historic moment in our development of sovereignty that after nearly 200 years, of emancipation, we are now in a position with nationhood, with confidence, to say let us now return to this issue of social justice around crimes committed against our people, crimes against humanity in effect. So we are now able to discuss all of this within the context of Caribbean sovereignty,” Prof Beckles said. READ MORE
