If the leaders decide to go ahead, a legal complaint will be filed against European states, possibly opening the way for formal negotiations.
More than 150 years after European colonial powers abolished slavery, a coalition of Caribbean nations is considering legal action to seek a formal apology and monetary compensation.
Caribbean leaders meeting next week in St. Vincent are expected to study a broad legal outline for the reparations claim prepared by a British law firm.
The subject of reparations has simmered in the Caribbean for many years and opinions are divided. Some see reparations as delayed justice, while others see it as an empty claim and a distraction from modern social problems in Caribbean societies.
Slavery ended throughout the Caribbean in the 1800s in the wake of slave revolts, and left many of the region’s plantation economies in tatters.
If the leaders decide to go ahead, a legal complaint will be filed against European states, possibly opening the way for formal negotiations.
The European states targeted are Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
[…]
