Reparations for the Nation State and People of Haiti

Whereas, for a period of almost 300 years, the people of Haiti were victims of the most extreme crime against humanity- the trade in enslaved Africans and the associated system of racialized chattel slavery-which was inflicted upon them by the nation of France and various other European powers;

And whereas the people of Haiti fought and won the only successful revolutionary war waged against the system of chattel slavery by the enslaved victims of that system;

And whereas the Haitian Revolution and the military defeats inflicted on the slavery sustaining regimes of France, Spain and England by the Haitian revolutionaries constituted a major blow to the entire European system of racialized chattel slavery, and proved to be an invaluable source of inspiration to all enslaved African people struggling for their freedom;

And whereas these major victories won by the Haitian people for themselves and all other African people were accomplished at the expense of tremendous human and material sacrifice on the part of the nation and people of Haiti;

And whereas in the years after the Revolution powerful and vindictive regimes in Europe and North America, including the governments of France and the United States, made every effort to inflict punitive damage on the nation and people of Haiti by imposing on Haiti a so-called compensation payment of 150 million gold francs to France, and by carrying out a number of blockades, embargoes, invasions and occupation of Haiti;

And whereas these long years of criminality and unlawful victimisation have resulted in continuing and currently existing underdevelopment, poverty, human suffering and economic, social and cultural damage to the nation and people of Haiti;

And whereas, as a matter of international law and morality, the nation and people of Haiti are entitled to the payment of reparations and the implementation of reparative measures and programmes, to repair the damage that they have suffered and continue to suffer;

And whereas, at the African and African Descendants World Conference Against Racism which was held in Barbados in October 2002, the newly established Global African Congress committed itself and called upon African and Caribbean people and governments to make the achievement of reparations for Haiti one of the priority objectives of the international Reparations movement;

This 3rd Assembly of Caribbean People hereby resolves:-

To immediately launch a Caribbean and a wider international campaign, in collaboration with progressive forces in Haiti and in the Haitian Diaspora, to advance, demand and achieve reparation payments and reparative measures and programmes for the nation and people of Haiti, and in so doing, to identify and target the government of France as one of the major guilty parties from which reparations are due and owing; and

To observe and celebrate every 23rd of August as an international day in support of reparations for the nation and people of Haiti.

CARRIED: By Majority of Delegates Dated August 24/2003, Cap Haitien, Haiti.

Representing the Global Afrikan Congress at the 3rd Assembly of Caribbean People in Cap Haitian, Haiti Are:

Cikiah Thomas; GAC Chairperson (Canada) David Comissiong; Director of the Commission For Pan-African Affairs (Barbados) Attorney Bobby Clarke; (Barbados) Nekesha Holdipp; York University Toronto (Canada) Akins Vidale, University of West Indies, (Trinidad & Tobago)

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