It is necessary that the nations that have given rise to this situation condemn colonialism acknowledging their behaviour as a crime, reconcile with their past, apologize and compensate the colonized countries.
This decision will help create a climate of friendship and cooperation among peoples and create an extremely positive precedent in international relations, promoting the supremacy of the "force of law" on the "law of force".
Newsletter 03/21 - Reparations at the World Social Forum 2021
The theme of reparations at the 2021 World Social Forum was treated in the workshop Reparations to Colonialism, in the workshop Interculturalism, Decolonization and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in the workshop Coalitions, Convergences and Reparation against Racism and in the Agora of the Futures. In these activities participated about one hundred people, many of whom representatives of other organizations. It was made a point of the situation on the reparations in recent years trying to identify actions most promising for the future.
United Nations: on May 22, 2019, following the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by 116 votes in favour, 6 against and 56 abstentions the resolution 73/295 confirming that the process of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully completed and giving the United Kingdom six months to withdraw its colonial administration from the Chagos Archipelago unconditionally. On October 29, 2019 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and racial intolerance Tendayi Achiume presented the report A/74/321 clarifying the human rights obligations of Member States in relation to reparations for racial discrimination rooted in slavery and colonialism.
International day for reparations: launched by the Assembly of convergence To end with racism, xenophobia and the discriminations that are the bases of colonialism of the World Social Forum 2013, it is annually celebrated on October 12. It is possible to join the call and/or organize decentralized action necessary to advance the cause of reparations all over the world (press releases, conferences, exhibitions, media campaigns, street actions, cultural festivals, radio broadcasts or television, political decisions, etc.). Its recognition at the United Nations level will give the right legitimacy to the various requests for reparations continuing the path traced by the Durban World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) and allowing to speed up the process.
Repatriation of the remains and return of the colonial treasures: on November 23, 2018 university professors Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy delivered the "Report on the Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethic" commissioned by the President of France recommending the definitive restitution of the treasures looted during the colonial period. In recent years demands for the repatriation of the remains and the definitive restitution of the treasures have continued, as well as the attempts by some former colonizers to hinder this inevitable step of human evolution (Restitutions of the colonial treasures, Reparations, not only repatriation of remains, Definitive restitutions on the horizon, Return and don't procrastinate, The slow path of restitutions, Return All Colonial Treasures).
Fall of colonial symbols: there had already been precedents in previous years, from the Rhodes Must Fall movement in 2015 to the removal of the monument to Antonio López y López in Barcelona and the decolonisation of some streets in Berlin in 2018, from the toppling of the monuments to Pedro de Valdivia in Temuco, to Pedro de Valdivia and García Hurtado de Mendoza in Cañete and to Cristoforo Colombo and Francisco de Aguirre in Arica in 2019 to the toppling of the monuments to Victor Schoelcher in Schoelcher and Fort-de-France on 22 May 2020. But it is only with the explosion of anti-racism protests following the death of George Floyd that the fall of colonial symbols became viral and continued without interruption for months, pushing reparations in the United States.
Request for reparations by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM): the members of the CARICOM started in 2013 the request for reparations for the genocide of the native people and the slavery, approving the Ten Point Reparation Plan. In recent years pressure has increased on the Member States of the CARICOM to drop the request for reparations for the genocide of the native people and the slavery with refusals and boycotts by the colonizers (France, United Kingdom, United States, etc.), but despite this there have been many initiatives (Caricom Reparations Commission News, Reparations at the United Nations Security Council, Reparations at the General Debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, More momentum in the CARICOM request for reparations).
