Guyana committed to achieving reparations for African slave trade

President Irfaan Ali (left) with UN Secretary General António Guterres at the UN Headquarters in New York yesterday. A release from the Office of the President said that the two discussed matters in relation to climate change and Covid-19 vaccines.

President Irfaan Ali yesterday reaffirmed Guyana’s commitment to gaining international reparations for the African slave trade. 

According to a release from the Office of the President, the President made the reaffirmation at a high-level meeting to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action that was held under the theme “Reparations, racial justice and equality for people of African descent”.

Ali told the New York meeting that “Guyana is committed to gaining international reparations for the crime of African enslavement.  Reparative justice must not only include a full and unconditional apology from those responsible and/or who benefitted from the transatlantic trade in captive Africans and their consequent enslavement, but must go beyond apology.”