Commonwealth\u00a0leaders, ending a week-long summit in Samoa, said on Saturday the time had come for a\u00a0discussion\u00a0on whether Britain should commit to\u00a0reparations\u00a0for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. <\/p>\n
Slavery\u00a0and the threat of climate change were major themes for representatives of the 56 countries in the group, most with roots in Britain\u2019s empire, at the\u00a0Commonwealth\u00a0Heads of Government Meeting that began in the Pacific Islands nation on Monday. <\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose country\u00a0has\u00a0long rejected calls for financial compensation for nations affected by\u00a0slavery, said summit\u00a0discussions were not \u201cabout money.\u201d <\/p>\n
On\u00a0slavery, the\u00a0leaders\u00a0said in a joint statement they had \u201cagreed that the time\u00a0has\u00a0come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity.\u201d <\/p>\n
The push for ex-colonial powers such as Britain to pay\u00a0reparations\u00a0or make other amends for\u00a0slavery\u00a0and its legacies\u00a0has\u00a0gained momentum worldwide, particularly among the Caribbean Community and the African Union. <\/p>\n
The statement also made reference to \u201cblackbirding\u201d, a term for people from places including the Pacific Islands being deceived, coerced or kidnapped to work on plantations in Australia and elsewhere. <\/p>\n
Those opposed to\u00a0reparations\u00a0say\u00a0countries should not be held responsible for historical wrongs, while those in support\u00a0say\u00a0the legacy of\u00a0slavery\u00a0has\u00a0led to vast and persistent racial inequality. <\/p>\n
The joint statement did not mention what form\u00a0reparations\u00a0should take. <\/p>\n
Starmer told a press conference the joint statement did two things: \u201cIt notes calls for\u00a0discussion\u00a0and it agrees that this is the time for a conversation. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I should be really clear here, in the two days we\u2019ve been here, none of the\u00a0discussions have been about money. Our position is very, very clear in relation to that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Professor Kingsley Abbott, director of the Institute of\u00a0Commonwealth\u00a0Studies at the University of London, said the statement was a sign of a potentially historic breakthrough on the issue. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe commitment to conversations on reparatory justice wedges open the door for dialogue, and now the hard work really begins,\u201d said Abbott, who attended the summit. <\/p>\n
The joint statement also referred to concern about \u201cthe severe consequences of the climate crisis, including rising temperatures and sea levels.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a boost for Pacific Islands\u00a0such as Tuvalu\u00a0under threat from rising seas, they issued the\u00a0Commonwealth\u2019s first Oceans Declaration, affirming that a nation\u2019s\u00a0maritime boundaries should remain\u00a0fixed even if climate change causes small island states to be submerged. <\/p>\n
Fixing maritime boundaries means atoll nations can continue to reap the economic benefit of vast fishing grounds, even if populations must migrate as dry land area is significantly reduced. The declaration bolsters momentum for international law to recognise the perpetual statehood of sinking island states. <\/p>\n
More than half of the\u00a0Commonwealth\u2019s members are small nations, many of them low-lying islands at risk from rising sea levels caused by climate change. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Commonwealth\u00a0leaders, ending a week-long summit in Samoa, said on Saturday the time had come for a\u00a0discussion\u00a0on whether Britain should commit to\u00a0reparations\u00a0for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. Slavery\u00a0and the threat of climate change were major themes for representatives of the 56 countries in the group, most with roots in Britain\u2019s empire, at the\u00a0Commonwealth\u00a0Heads of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}