Newsletter 11/24 - The Commonwealth opens to reparations

The twenty-seventh Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was held in Apia, the capital of Samoa, on October 25 and 26, 2024, with the attendance of the fifty-six delegations of the member states. The meeting concluded with the approval of the final declaration, three declarations on the theme “One Resilient Common Future” and the appointment of Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey as the next Secretary-General.

In point 22 of the final declaration, despite the United Kingdom open and repeated opposition, the Commonwealth Heads of Government […], noting calls for discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans and chattel enslavement and recognising the importance of this matter to member states of the Commonwealth, the majority of which share common historical experiences in relation to this abhorrent trade, chattel enslavement, the debilitation and dispossession of Indigenous People, indentureship, colonialism, blackbirding and their enduring effects, agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity. […]

On October 28, 2024 the Minister for Development of the United Kingdom Anneliese Dodds, commenting in the House of Commons on the attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, regrettably reiterated several times that [...] the United Kingdom does not pay reparations [...], as also confirmed by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom David Lammy.

Colonialism Reparation welcomes that the Commonwealth has opened to colonialism reparations during the 2024 Heads of Government meeting and asks that the United Kingdom agree to apologize and compensate for the entire colonial period, bearing in mind its lasting impact in the present, before being forced to do so.