(Astigan.com) — A panel of international experts led by the University of Essex is expected to join forces to create a new framework that would help major organisations around the world make meaningful reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.
At a high profile conference in London this November, Fernne Brennan, of the University’s School of Law and Human Rights Centre, will be joined by an impressive line-up of NGOs, human rights lawyers, trade experts, politicians and fellow academics to discuss the best means of remedying what they believe to be the ongoing “slavery” of poorer nations through ongoing and unfair trade practices.
As well as debating the issues, the aim of the conference is to produce a group of Experts by Experience who are willing to work together to formulate a framework for reparations that would be adopted by influential international organisations such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund.
Fernne explained: “Current trade practices are inherently and institutionally racist and are designed and manipulated in a fashion that continues to leave large parts of the world impoverished and effectively enslaved. We are not looking for an apology for what’s happened in a colonial past, nor are we looking simply for financial compensation through litigation. We are looking to the past to understand the current and continuing legacy of the slave trade in order to create a new internationally-recognised framework that will guarantee access for families across the world to food, education and healthcare. But the key to achieving that is to look closely at trade.”
As part of her ongoing research into the best way for the West to make reparations for what she and others describe as the ongoing effects of the slave trade, or “African Holocaust”, Fernne has even been delving into her own family history and life in Guyana including looking at the trade of famous products like Demerara sugar which she refers to as “slave sugar”. She added: “It was a fascinating process and it just reinforced even further to me how the system still does not work because of unfair treatment and unfair economic practices and systems.”
‘Colonialism, Slavery, Reparations and Trade: Remedying the ‘Past’? takes place on November 10 at the Brunei Gallery in London. Fernne believes the conference and the establishment of the panel of Experts by Experience could prove to be a major turning point in the ongoing international debate about how slavery and all its ramifications can be consigned once and for all to the past.
Material provided by the University of Essex
October 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
about time somebody thought of an alternative to all this meaningless apologising.
these guys have a website: http://www.essex.ac.uk/reparations
October 21st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
This seems to be well-intentioned, but I’m just not sure what the target of this plan would be.
Is this financial compensation for the transatlantic slave trade? Or for colonialism? Both are mentioned, yet they were entirely different historical events.
The slave trade, for instance, was a joint endeavor of African and European traders, to the detriment of those African unfortunate enough to be enslaved. The descendants of the victims now live primarily in the Western hemisphere. African colonialism, on the other hand, was the exploitation of African societies by European nations, and the descendants of the victims live primarily in Africa.
Beyond this uncertainty, I also wonder whether the goal is to reach the descendants of the original victims? Or those suffering from the legacy of these events today? These are different groups of people, and there seem to be hints of both answers here, and on the University of Essex web site above.
Or is this compensation for those suffering today from modern forms of exploitation, such as unfair trade practices? Again, there are hints here and at Essex that this is the goal.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:17 am
The point of the conference is to make the links between the very issues you have raised. There is a lot of confusion. The conference aims to piece together the puzzles, to look at legal and pragmatic hurdles and to create an international group of experts by experience to take forward an agenda for change. Quite frankly it is time! Why don’t you come along and see, get involved. At £25 for the day including refreshments, that can’t be bad!
BOOK NOW at http://www.essex.ac.uk/reparations
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:47 am
I am certainly attending to the conference. I feel the there is a clear link between the slave trade and the colonial past, and the current interational trade rules that discriminate and impoverish a large pert of the world population. It will be interesting to find out about suggestions as to how this can be addrssed.
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:05 am
I wish I could attend the conference, but I’m on the wrong side of the Atlantic.
As someone who’s been exploring the involvement of my own ancestors in the transatlantic slave trade–they were the most prolific U.S. slave traders in our history–I certainly respect the attempt to examine the intricacies of this history and possible means of addressing it.
Will there be some type of report or other output of the conference, so that the rest of us might examine its conclusions and suggestions for further work?