Switzerland - Slavery

Starting from the work of the Swiss historian Hans Fässler, on June 16, 2003, in their answer to Pia Hollenstein interpellation about the Swiss participation in slavery and the transatlantic slave trade the Federal Council stated that: “Switzerland has never been a colonial power and so it is fundamentally different from those countries at level of international trade. This does not hide the fact that many Swiss citizens were more or less involved in the transatlantic slave trade, thing that the Federal Council regrets in today's perspective. As underlined in the text of the interpellation, these facts are known and have been highlighted in several studies. Slavery and the slave trade have involved many countries.

The fourth summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States was held in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, on January 27, 2016 with the attendance of thirty-three delegations. The summit ended with the approval of the political declaration and the 2016 action plan.
At paragraph 64 of the political declaration the members agreed to [...] recognize, once again, that slavery and the slave trade were atrocious crimes in the history of humanity; hence, we welcome CARICOM’s initiative for the creation of the Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community and applaud the efforts of this Commission to redress the injustices of history [...]

This month, for our column, we suggest you the reading of the TRANSCEND Media Service editorial of February 2016 by Johan Galtung entitled: "Meanwhile around the world: problems - remedies"

...[5] European Union and the flow of “migrants”. No, Völkerwanderung, massive walking (50 million?) over many years (50?) from devastated regions–by slavery, colonialism, robbery capitalism and wars mainly by the West–to the presumably livable. The culprits are in Western Europe, not Eastern and Northern Europe who understandably refuse. The shadows of history are strong, recent, well known. Your problem!

Remedies: Acknowledge the responsibility, ye colonial powers! An international reconciliation commission could decide on compensations spread out over time, long-lasting like colonialism. And then: Hands off Africa, the Fertile Crescent (mainly Shia), make Israel recognize Palestine with 4 June 1967 borders. And USA: Hands off Latin America...