Dublin Heads National Reparations Committee

Dentist Dr. Damian Dublin has been appointed to head an eight-member national reparations committee to lead the country's response to a regional call for reparations for the crime of slavery.

The other members of the committee are: Dr. Alwin Bully; Dr. Lennox Honychurch; Garnett Joseph - Carib Chief; Gregory Rabess; Bernard Imani Shaw - Representative of the House of Nyabinghi ; Franklyn Georges; Bernard Nicholas; and Ambassador Felix Gregoire.

A release from the Government of Dominica stated that at the Thirty-Fourth meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community which was held in July 2013 in Trinidad and Tobago the decision was taken "to set up National Committees on Reparations, to establish the moral, ethical and legal case for the payment of reparations by the former colonial European countries, to the native and people of the Caribbean Community, for native genocide, the transatlantic slave trade and a racialized system of chattel slavery".

The release added: "Heads of Government further agreed to establish a CARICOM Reparations Commission comprising the chair of the National Committees and a representative of the University of the West Indies (UWI), which would report directly to a Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Reparations, chaired by Prime Minister of Barbados, the Hon. Freundel Stuart.

"A Reparations Conference was held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines during the period September 15-17, 2013, which brought together representatives of CARICOM Governments and National Reparations Committees, civil society groupings from within CARICOM and its diaspora, the University of the West Indies and individuals who have distinguished themselves in the struggle for reparations for Native Genocide and Slavery in CARICOM member states. Dominica was represented at this Conference by Ambassador Damian Dublin.

"At the Twenty –Fifth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM held in March 2014, the Regional Reparations Commission presented a Draft Regional Strategic and Operational Plan for a Caribbean Reparatory Justice Programme which was accepted by the Heads of Government as a basis for further action".

The terms of reference of the committee include: disseminate information on the historical, relevant and justifiable aspects of the reparations struggle; meet with general public and specific target groups/organizations, to obtain views and suggestions; develop and obtain approval for a work plan to guide the work of the Committee; recognize the indigenous Kalinago struggle re native Genocide as an integral aspect of the overall reparations struggle; encourage a re- education, re-identification and general resurgence of Black history, culture and heritage; promote teaching of Black history in the schools and collaborate and liaise with CARICOM Reparations Commission.