In the run-up to this year’s summit, there have been growing calls from Commonwealth leaders for the UK to apologise and make reparations worth trillions of pounds for the country’s historic role in the slave trade.
Reparatory justice for slavery can include financial reparations, debt relief, an official apology, educational programmes, building museums, economic support, and public health assistance.
A report published last year by the University of West Indies, backed by Patrick Robinson, a judge who sits on the International Court of Justice, concluded that the UK owed more than £18 trillion in reparations for its role in slavery in 14 Caribbean countries.
Comments by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, have emerged backing Caribbean nations’ calls for a conversation about reparations.
Speaking in a Commons debate on June 14 2018, he said: “The Caribbean nations have been united in wanting to put the issue of reparations back on the table… It is important that this country hears and listens to those calls for support, particularly against a backdrop of the Government making it clear that they wish to enter into trade negotiations with those countries once again.
“Let us consider: what do reparations look like for those Caribbean nations? How do we make that work? What dialogue do we as a country need to have with those people?”
In 2020, as shadow justice secretary under Sir Keir, Mr Lammy said on reparations: “The starting point is truth and reconciliation… we’re no longer in a society where we question notions like white privilege… And then we get to a point where we have to discuss power and reckoning and repairing – and that to some extent is obviously financial, and involves endowments.”