Reparations for Chattel Slavery: A Call From the ‘Periphery’ to Decolonise International (Human Rights) Law

ABSTRACT

Global inequities persist despite the achievements of the human rights project so far, as Kofi Annan highlighted in 2005. Caribbean calls for reparations for chattel slavery are a manifestation of and a response to global inequities that affect the Global South in particular. However, when endeavouring to find a footing in international law, and specifically in international human rights law, reparations calls have been contested and challenged. This article proposes a reimagining of the international human rights system to offer a legitimate place for reparations for chattel slavery and thus enable an effective challenge to pressing injustices such as racial discrimination and its ramifications. Despite being a region that has been birthed from such profound historical injustices that still affect the full realisation of human rights today, the Caribbean and its human rights challenges and calls for justice have been relegated to and maintained at the periphery of international human rights law. For that reason, this article focuses on reparations for slavery emanating from the Caribbean. Drawing on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), it argues that the inability of international legal systems to respond to historical injustices indicates that the colonial imagination, constructed on the compass of exclusion, is still the foundation of international human rights law and of modern, postcolonial societies. The article thus advocates for decolonising international human rights law to accommodate a more inclusive future for human rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Reparations for chattel slavery
• the Caribbean
• CARICOM Ten Point Reparations Plan
• backward-looking responsibility
• forward-looking responsibility
• decolonising international human rights law
• TWAIL

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Jamaica Information Service, ‘Lord Gifford Makes Case for Slavery Reparations’ (JIS, 31 October 2007). <https://jis.gov.jm/lord-gifford-makes-case-for-slavery-reparations/> accessed 1 September 2021.

2 UNGA, ‘Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racial Intolerance, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racial Intolerance’ (2019) A/74/321 para 25.

3 R Robinson, The Debt: What American Owes to Blacks (Dutton 2000); N Wittmann, ‘An International Law Deconstruction of the Hegemonic Denial of the Right to Reparations’ [2019] Social and Economic Studies 19.

4 A Gifford, ‘The Legal Basis of the Claim for Slavery Reparations’ [2000] Spring American Bar Association ABA Human Rights Magazine <https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol27_2000/spring2000/hr_spring00_gifford/> accessed 1 September 2021.

5 Patrick Robinson, ‘The Ascertainment of a Rule of International Law Condemning Transatlantic Chattel Slavery’ (American Society of International Law (ASIL) Symposium, online, May 2021) 2 <www.asil.org/events/2021Reparations> accessed 21 May 2021.

6 H Beckles, ‘The Reparation Movement: Greatest Political Tide of the Twenty-first Century’ (2019) Social and Economic Studies 11, 15.

7 H Beckles, Britain’s Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide (University of the West Indies Press 2013) 19.

8 Beckles (n 6) 15–16.

9 Ibid. 16.

10 Beckles, ‘Britain's Black Debt’ (n 7) 24–36; See also S Jackson, Creole Indigeneity: Between Myth and Nation in the Caribbean (University of Minnesota Press 2012); M Newton ‘Returns to a Native Land: Indigeneity and Decolonization in the Anglophone Caribbean’ (2013) Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism 108.

11 Beckles (n 6) 12.

12 Ibid.

13 CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC), CARICOM Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice <www.caricom.org/caricom-ten-point-plan-for-reparatory-justice/> accessed 1 October 2021.

14 The Kalinago people in Dominica, the Garifuna people in St Vincent, the Maya population of Belize, and the indigenous Amerindians in Guyana, for example, are living proof of the complex histories of colonial violence and their manifold legal, social, cultural, and economic implications for contemporary, postcolonial Caribbean populations.

15 For a focused discussion on Caribbean reparations for indigenous populations, see A Strecker, ‘Indigenous Land Rights and Caribbean Reparations Discourse (2017) Leiden Journal of International Law 629.

16 See e.g. Caribbean Court of Justice The Maya Leaders Alliance v The Attorney General of Belize [2015] CCJ 15 (AJ); Supreme Court of Belize Aurelio Cal, et al v Attorney General of Belize (Claims No 171 and 172 of 2007); Inter-American Court of Human Rights Saramaka People v Suriname, Judgment (Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs) Series C No 172 (28 November 2007); Inter-American Court of Human Rights Moiwana Community v Suriname, Judgment (Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations and Costs) Series C No 124 (15 June 2005); Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Maya Indigenous Communities of the Toledo District v Belize (2004) Report no 40/04 Case 12.053.

17 Upendra Baxi, ‘Some Newly Emergent Geographies of Injustice: Boundaries and Borders in International Law’ (2016) Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 23, 15, 36.

18 A Buser, ‘Colonial Injustices and the Law of State Responsibility: The CARICOM Claim for Reparations’ (2016) Heidelberg Journal of International 409; Wittman (n 3); Robinson (n 5).

19 Kamari Maxine Clarke, Affective Justice. The International Criminal Court and the Pan-Africanist Pushback (Duke University Press 2019) 263.

20 UNGA, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 1948) UNGA Resolution 217A (III), A/RES/3/217 A, art 1.

21 The use of ‘international (human rights) law’ throughout the article is intended to refer to both international law and international human rights law, as the article engages in a critique of both legal regimes.

22 T van Boven, ‘Victims’ Rights to a Remedy and Reparation: The New United Nations Principles and Guidelines’ in CF Ferstman and others (eds), Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity (Brill 2009) 26.

23 D Thomas, Exceptional Violence: Embodied Citizenship in Transnational Jamaica (Duke University Press 2011) 18.

24 UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), ‘Report of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent on its seventeenth and eighteenth sessions’ (2016) UN Doc A/HRC/33/61/Add2, para 26.

25 N Girvan, ‘Expropriation and Compensation from a Third World Perspective’ (1976) reprinted in A Kamugisha (ed), Caribbean Political Thought: Theories of the Post-Colonial State (Ian Randle Publishers 2013) 153.

26 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), The Situation of the People of African Descent in the Americas Report (2011) para 99.

27 F Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press 2004); See also W Rodney, ‘Contemporary Political Trends in the English-Speaking Caribbean (1975), reproduced in Kamugisha (n 25).

28 A Kamugisha, ‘Introduction: Pot-Colonial Failure?’ in Kamugisha (n 25) xvii.

29 H Beckles, V Shepherd and A Reid, ‘Introduction’ (2019) Social and Economic Studies 1A 68.

30 See selected writings: H Beckles, ‘“Slavery was a long, long time ago”: Remembrance, Reconciliation and the Reparations Discourse in the Caribbean’ (2007) ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 9; Beckles (n 7); V Shepherd, ‘Reparations and The Right to Development’ (16th session of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD), Geneva, March–April 2015) <www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Racism/WGEAPD/Session16/VereneShepherd.pdf> accessed 15 September 2021; R Biholar, ‘Imagining Caribbean Development: The Right to Development and the Reparations Nexus’ in C Ngang, SD. Kamga and V Gumede (eds), Perspectives on the Right to Development (Pretoria University Law Press 2018).

31 The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is a regional organisation of states that was established in 1973 with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. See ‘Caribbean Community’ <https://caricom.org> accessed 1 October 2021.

32 National Reparations Committees have been established in 12 independent CARICOM member states. Note that CARICOM associate members are overseas territories of the UK and have not formed such national committees. CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC), ‘About Us’ <http://caricomreparations.org/about-us/> accessed 1 October 2021.

33 Ibid.

34 CRC, ‘CARICOM Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice’ (n 13).

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 United Nations, Durban Declaration and Plan of Action, Adopted at the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Violence (DDPA) (8 September 2001 UNGA Resolution 56/266) para 158.

38 CRC (n 13).

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid.

41 BBC News, ‘David Cameron Rules Out Slavery Reparation during Jamaica Visit’ (30 September 2015) <www.bbc.com/news/uk-34401412> accessed 5 October 2021; Rowena Mason, ‘Jamaica Should “move on from painful legacy of slavery”, Says Cameron. British Prime Minister Ducks Official Calls for UK to Apologise for Its Role in the Slave Trade or Pay Reparations’ The Guardian (London, 30 September 2015) <www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/jamaica-should-move-on-from-painful-legacy-of-slavery-says-cameron> accessed 5 October 2021.

42 H Beckles, ‘Open Letter to Prime Minister David Cameron’ Jamaica Gleaner (Kingston, 27 September 2015) <http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20150928/open-letter-prime-minister-david-cameron> accessed 5 October 2021.

43 BR Boxill, ‘The Morality of Reparation’ (1972) Social Theory and Practice 113.

44 Ibid. 116. Injustice is committed, as Boxill explains, when interfering with ‘ …  another’s legitimate attempt to do or possess something’ (i.e. products of own labour) or ‘ …  when someone makes it impossible for others to pursue a legitimate goal’ (i.e. living life with dignity; owning the products of own labour).

45 J Locke, Treatise of Civil Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration (Charles L Sherman ed, Appleton-Century Company 1937) 9 as cited in Boxill (n 43) 116–17.

46 Boxill (n 43) 117.

47 Ibid. 118.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid. 117.

50 Ibid. 115.

51 Ibid. 114.

52 Ibid.

53 UNGA, Declaration on the Right to Development (4 December 1986) A/RES/41/128, art 1; UNHRC, Draft Convention on the Right to Development (17 January 2020) A/HRC/WG2/21/2, art 4.

54 Boxill (n 43) 115.

55 Arjun Sengupta, ‘Right to Development as a Human Right’ (2001) Economic and Political Weekly 2527.

56 JT Gathii, ‘The Promise of International Law: A Third World View’ (2020) Grotius Lecture presented at the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, 2 <https://ssrn.com/abstract=3635509> accessed 30 August 2021.

57 The Asian-African Conference held in Indonesia, Bandung, 18–24 April 1955.

58 R Burke, Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press 2010) 16.

59 SLB Jensen, The Making of International Human Rights: The 1960s, Decolonization, and the Reconstruction of Global Values (CUP 2016) 71.

60 UNGA, ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (n 20) art 1.

61 Jensen (n 59) 3.

62 Ibid.

63 Makau Mutua, ‘What is TWAIL?’ (2000) 94 Proceedings of the Annual Meeting American Society of International Law 31, 38 <www.jstor.org/stable/25659346> accessed 15 August 2021.

64 Ibid. 35.

65 A Cassese, International Law (2nd edn, OUP 2005) 22.

66 B Fassbender and A Peters, ‘Introduction: Towards A Global History of International Law’ in B Fassbender and A Peters (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (OUP 2012) 2.

67 A Becker Lorca, ‘Eurocentrism in the History of International Law’ in Fassbender and Peters, The Oxford Handbook (n 66) 1035.

68 M Bedjaoui, ‘Poverty of the International Order’ in R Falk, F Kratochwil and SH Mendlovitz (eds), International Law: A Contemporary Perspective (Westview Press 1985) 153.

69 A Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law (CUP 2004) 32–33, 62.

70 Mutua, ‘What is TWAIL?’ (n 63) 33–34.

71 Gathii (n 56) 16.

72 Ibid. 2.

73 See generally Dani Wadada Nabudere, ‘Development Theories, Knowledge Production and Emancipatory Practice’ in V Padayachee (ed), The Development Decade? Economic and Social Change in South Africa 1994–2004 (HSRC Press 2006).

74 Gathii (n 56) 2.

75 Mutua, ‘What is TWAIL?’ (n 63) 31; Antony Anghie, ‘Francisco de Vitoria and the Colonial Origins of International Law (1996) Social & Legal Studies 321.

76 Baxi (n 17) 36.

77 Gathii (n 56) 2.

78 Anghie, Imperialism (n 69) 35; Baxi (n 17) 30, 52; Mutua, ‘What is TWAIL?’ (n 63) 33.

79 Anghie, Imperialism (n 69) 35, 66. Anghie (n 69) 38 alerts that ‘the violence of positivist language in relation to colonialism is hard to overlook. Positivists developed an elaborate vocabulary for denigrating non-European people, presenting them as suitable objects for conquest, and legitimizing the most extreme violence against them, all in the furtherance of the civilizing mission, the discharge of the white man’s burden.’

80 Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice (1945) in Article 38 (1) (c) states that ‘The Court … shall apply: (c) the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations’.

81 Baxi (n 17) 30, 32.

82 Ibid. 24.

83 Clarke (n 19) 263.

84 Ibid.

85 UNGA (n 2) para 50.

86 Gathii (n 56) 22.

87 Bhupinder S. Chimni, ‘The Past, Present and Future of International Law: A Critical Third World Approach’ (2007) Melbourne Journal of International Law 499, 501; see also Gathii (n 56).

88 Gathii (n 56) 22.

89 M Mutua, ‘Savages, Victims, and Saviors: The Metaphor of Human Rights’ (2001) Harvard International Law Journal 201, 210 and 212.

90 Abdullahi An'Naim, ‘It’s Time to Decolonize Human Rights’ (Emory University Institute for Developing Nations Lecture 25 February 2016) <www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCkvt9y46o&t=7s> accessed 1 June 2021.

91 Gathii (n 56) 2.

92 Mutua (n 89) 205.

93 See CRC mandate. CRC (n 33).

94 van Boven (n 22) 26.

95 ‘Conference Split on Slavery Issue’ (BBC News, 5 September 2001) <http://news.bbc.co.Uk/1/hi/world/africa/152651l.stm> accessed 15 September 2021.

96 International Law Commission (ILC), Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (UNGA Resolution A/RES/56/83, 2001).

97 Ibid. art 31(1).

98 Case Concerning the Factory at Chorzów (Jurisdiction) (Judgment No 8) [1927] PCIJ Series A No 9, p 21.

99 Case Concerning the Factory at Chorzów (Merits) (Judgment No 13) [1928] PCIJ Series A No 17, p 47.

100 ILC, Responsibility of States (n 96) art 34.

101 Max du Plessis, ‘Historical Injustice and International Law: An Exploratory Discussion of Reparation for Slavery’ (2003) Human Rights Quarterly 25, 624, 627.

102 International Law Commission (ILC), ‘Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, with commentaries’ (2001) International Law Commission Ybk, Vol II, Part Two, para (1), 57.

103 ILC (n 96) art 13.

104 United Nations, ‘Reports of International Arbitral Awards’ (2012) <https://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_xxix/26-53.pdf> accessed 7 October, 2021.

105 Ibid. 49. The Enterprise case stands as proof that legal positivism supported the institution and practice of slavery: ‘[w]hat is law is a question of fact; and though its original institution may have been of doubtful morality or justice, it is still law’: ibid. 38.

106 Ibid. 49.

107 Ibid. 50.

108 Taslim O. Elias, ‘The Doctrine of Intertemporal Law’ (1980) AJIL 285; R Higgins, ‘Time and the Law: International Perspectives on an Old Problem’ (1997) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 501.

109 United Nations (n 104) 27, 30.

110 RE Howard-Hassmann, ‘Reparations for the Slave Trade: Rhetoric, Law, History and Political Realities’ (2007) Canadian Journal of African Studies/La Revue canadienne des études africaines 427, 428 and 431.

111 Ibid.

112 United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, ‘Study Concerning the Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’ (1993) E/CN4/Sub2/1993/8.

113 For example, as the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism indicates, the intertemporal principle was appealed to by Germany to deny any international legal responsibility and reparations for the genocide of Ovaherero and Nama peoples of Namibia. UNGA (n 2) para 48. Also, Germany Federal Parliament, Official Record No 17/6813; UNHRC, ‘Report of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent on its mission to Germany’ (15 August 2017) A/HRC/36/60/Add2.

114 UNGA, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) (21 December 1965) UNTS vol 660.

115 UNGA, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (16 December 1966) UNTS vol 999.

116 UNGA, Declaration on the Right to Development (n 53). This article does not focus in this section on the Draft Convention on the Right to Development (2020), because of its status. However, this document will be considered in section 6 which discusses the implications of making space for reparations in international (human rights) law.

117 DDPA (n 37) art 13.

118 OHCHR, Sub-Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2001/1 ‘Recognition of responsibility and reparation for massive and flagrant violations of human rights which constitute crimes against humanity and which took place during the period of slavery, of colonialism and wars of conquest’ (2001) 2.

119 Ibid. 1; See also OHCHR, Sub-Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2002/5 ‘Recognition of responsibility and reparation for massive and flagrant violations of human rights which constitute crimes against humanity and which took place during the period of slavery, colonialism and wars of conquest’ (2002) 1.

120 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), ‘General Recommendation 34 Racial discrimination against people of African descent’ (2011) CERD/C/GC/34 para 6.

121 UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, ‘UN Experts Condemn UK Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report’ (Geneva 19 April 2021) <www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27004&LangID=E> accessed 21 August 2021.

122 UNGA, ‘Contemporary Forms of Racism’ (n 2) paras 25, 60.

123 UNGA, ‘Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law’ (2005) UNGA Resolution A/RES/60/147.

124 Ibid. annex para 18. The recognised types of reparations are restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantee of non-repetition.

125 UNGA, ‘Contemporary Forms of Racism’ (n 2) paras 37, 38.

126 van Boven (n 22).

127 Ibid. 22.

128 UNGA (n 114) art 1.

129 Ibid. art 6.

130 Ibid.

131 CERD, ‘General Recommendation 26 on Article 6 of the Convention’ (24 March 2000) (56 session, 1399th meeting) para 2.

132 Ibid. para. 1.

133 CERD, ‘General Recommendation 34’ (n 120) para. 37.

134 Ibid. para 17.

135 CERD, ‘General Recommendation 33 Follow-up to the Durban Review Conference’ (2009) CERD/C/GC/33 para 1(i).

136 UNGA (n 115) arts 2(1), 26.

137 Ibid. art 26.

138 Ibid. art 8(1) & (2).

139 Ibid. art 4(2).

140 Ibid. art 2(3), (a) & (b).

141 Ibid. arts 2(3)(c), 9(5).

142 UNGA (n 114) art 9; UNGA (n 115), art 40.

143 UNGA (n 114) art 14.

144 UNGA, Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (19 December 1966) UNTS vol 999 art 1.

145 UNGA (n 114) art 11; UNGA (n115) art 41.

146 OHCHR, ‘Decision of the ad hoc Conciliation Commission on the request for suspension submitted by Qatar concerning the interstate communication Qatar v the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’ (2021).

147 OHCHR, ‘Decision of the ad hoc Conciliation Commission on the request for suspension submitted by Qatar concerning the interstate communication Qatar v the United Arab Emirates’ (2021).

148 CERD, ‘Decision on the admissibility of the inter-State communication submitted by the State of Palestine against Israel’ (2021) CERD/C/103/R6.

149 OHCHR, ‘Realizing the Right to Development: Essays in Commemoration of 25 Years of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development’ (2013) 9–10.

150 UNCHR, ‘Report of the Secretary General’ (1979) E/CN4/1334 para 55.

151 UN, Charter of the United Nations (24 October 1945) 1 UNTS XVI arts 55, 56.

152 UNGA, ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (n 20) art 28.

153 Ibid. art 22.

154 UNGA, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (16 December 1966) UNTS vol 993.

155 UNCHR (n 150) para 55.

156 UNCHR, ‘REVIEW OF FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN FIELDS WITH WHICH THE SUB-COMMISSION HAS BEEN CONCERNED, Study concerning the right to restitution, compensation and rehabilitation for victims of gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Final report submitted by Special Rapporteur Mr Theo van Boven’ (2 July 1993) E/CN4/Sub2/1993/8 para 24.

157 Shepherd (n 30) 3–4.

158 UNGA (n 116) art 5.

159 Ibid.

160 Ibid. art 4(2).

161 UNHRC, ‘Report of the Working Group’ (n 24) para 39.

162 For a detailed legal analysis of the multiple duty bearers and rights holders under the right to development, see R Biholar, ‘The Right to Development: “the Alpha and Omega of rights”’ (2020) Journal of Law, Governance and Society 12, 21–25.

163 M Bedjaoui, ‘The Right to Development’ in M Bedjaoui (ed), International Law: Achievements and Prospects (Martinus Nijhoff 1991) 1182 as cited in P Alston and R Goodman (eds), International Human Rights. Law, Politics and Morals (OUP 2013) 1530.

164 See CRC (n 13).

165 Bedjaoui, ‘The Right to Development’ (n 163) 1531.

166 Biholar, ‘Imagining Caribbean Development’ (n 30) 342.

167 UNCHR, ‘Report of the Secretary General’ (n 150) para 57.

168 See SAD Kamga, ‘The Right to Development in the African Human Rights System: The Endorois Case’ (2011) De Jure 381.

169 See Anghie, Imperialism (n 69); Baxi (n 17); Bedjaoui, ‘Poverty of the International Order’ (n 68).

170 UNGA, ‘Contemporary Forms of Racism’ (n 2) para 60.

171 Beckles (n 7) 16.

172 ILC (n 96) arts 14, 15; See also UNGA (n 2) para 32.

173 Sandra Lovelace v Canada (30 July 1981) Communication No 024/1977 CCPR/C/13/D/24/1977.

174 Ibid. paras 10–11.

175 ILC (n 102) 60.

176 UNGA (n 2) paras 32, 49.

177 Gathii (n 56) 16.

178 T Thipanyane, ‘Current Claims, Regional Experiences, Pressing Problems: Identification of the Salient Issues and Pressing Problems in an African Post-colonial Perspective’ in Louise Krabbe Boserup and George Ulrich (eds), Human Rights in Development: Reparations; Redressing Past Wrongs (Kluwer Law International 2003) 48.

179 RM Spitzer, ‘The African Holocaust: Should Europe Pay Reparations to Africa for Colonialism and Slavery?’ (2002) Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 1313, 1320 and 1342.

180 Robinson (n 5).

181 A Anghie, ‘What is TWAIL?’ (2000) 94 Proceedings of the Annual Meeting American Society of International Law 39, 39 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/25659346> accessed 15 August 2021; see also Anghie, Imperialism (n 69) 62–63, 66.

182 Anghie, ‘What is TWAIL?’ (n 181) 39; Anghie, Imperialism (n 69) 63.

183 Anghie, Imperialism (n 69) 66.

184 Ibid.

185 Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bogle-l’Ouverture Publications 1972) 86.

186 Beckles (n 7) 18.

187 Ibid. 19.

188 Ibid.

189 See H Beckles and V Shepherd, Saving Souls: The Struggle to End Transatlantic Trade in Africans (Ian Randle Publishers 2007).

190 Robinson (n 5) 5.

191 Ibid. 4.

192 United Nations, ‘Reports of International Arbitral Awards’ (n 100) 37.

193 Anghie, Imperialism (n 69) 63.

194 A Anghie, ‘Finding the Peripheries: Sovereignty and Colonialism in Nineteenth-Century International Law’ (1999) Harvard International Law Journal 1, 14.

195 Robinson (n 5) 4.

196 Clarke (n 19) 172.

197 Anghie, ‘What is TWAIL?’ (n 181) 39.

198 Clarke (n 19) 263.

199 UNGA, ‘Contemporary Forms of Racism’ (n 2) para 50.

200 Ibid. para 17.

201 Gathii (n 56) 17.

202 Baxi (n 17) 30.

203 Spitzer (n 179) 1319.

204 Clarke (n 19) 263.

205 Gathii (n 56)15.

206 Spitzer (n 179) 1319, 1342.

207 UNHRC, ‘Report of the Working Group’ (n 24) para 36.

208 UNGA, ‘Contemporary Forms of Racism’ (n 2) para 58.

209 CRC, ‘CARICOM Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice’ (n 13).

210 Boxill (n 43) 118.

211 Biholar, ‘Imagining Caribbean Development’ (n 30) 330–31.

212 Boxill (n 43) 117.

213 J Johnston, ‘Partners in Austerity: Jamaica, the United States and the International Monetary Fund’ (Centre for Economic and Policy Research 2015) 14. See also, Biholar, ‘Imagining Caribbean Development’ (n 30) 322–23.

214 The University of the West Indies (The UWI) is a regional tertiary institution serving the entire Anglophone Caribbean.

215 The UWI Press Release ‘Historic MoU Signed between The UWI and The University of Glasgow’ (31 July 2019) <https://sta.uwi.edu/news/releases/release.asp?id=21946> accessed 20 December 2021.

216 S Mullen and S Newman, ‘Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow. Report Recommendations of the University of Glasgow’ (History of Slavery Steering Committee 2018) <www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_607547_smxx.pdf> accessed 20 December 2021.

217 The UWI Press Release (n 215).

218 UNGA, ‘Contemporary Forms of Racism’ (n 2) para 58.

219 Ibid.

220 UNHRC, Draft Convention (n 53).

221 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ‘General Recommendation No 19: Violence against women’ (1992) A/47/38.

222 Ibid. para 6.

223 See discussion at section 5.2 above.

224 Consent is expressed through signature and ratification or accession.

225 UNHRC, Draft Convention (n 53) Preamble paras 25–26.

226 To highlight a few similar components: promoting economic and social progress and development (Article 13 (1) (b)); addressing economic, social, health issues, and promoting cultural and educational cooperation (Article 13 (1) (c)); enhancing cooperation on and access to science, technology and innovation (Article 13 (4) (f); facilitating migration and mobility of persons (Article 13 (4) (h)).

227 Boxill (n 43) 115.

228 UNGA, ‘Contemporary Forms of Racism’ (n 2) para 58.

229 Boxill (n 43) 119.

230 Clarke (n 19) 33.

231 Ibid. 263.

232 Spitzer (n179) 1319, 1342.

233 Gathii (n 56) 2.

234 Ibid. 22.

235 Ibid.

236 Ibid.

237 Baxi (n 17) 36.

238 Mutua, ‘What is TWAIL?’ (n 63) 31.

239 UNGA, ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ (n 20) art 1.