By Catarina Demony
(Reuters) – Colombia’s Vice President Francia Marquez, an advocate of slavery reparations, urged former colonial powers to take duty for his or her previous wrongs as a United Nations discussion board on folks of African descent opened in New York on Monday.
“Colonial states, states that fostered… that type of domination primarily based on the definition of race need to assume the duty of restoring the human dignity of individuals of African descent,” Marquez advised Reuters in an interview.
Whereas the problem of reparations has gained momentum worldwide, from Africa to the Caribbean, so has the backlash. Lots of Europe’s leaders have opposed even speaking about reparations.
Marquez, a celebrated environmental activist, was elected in 2022 and is Colombia’s first Black lady vice chairman.
At the very least 12.5 million Africans have been kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and bought into slavery from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Tons of of 1000’s have been shipped to Colombia.
Marquez stated many Afro-Colombians nonetheless lacked primary rights, resembling entry to well being, housing and better schooling, a actuality she sees as a legacy of that interval: “We proceed to expertise the harm and penalties of that system.”
Opponents of reparations argue, amongst different issues, that modern states and establishments shouldn’t be held answerable for their previous.
However advocates say motion is required to handle the legacies, resembling systemic and structural racism, and say that modern states nonetheless profit from the wealth generated by a whole lot of years of exploitation.
On the fourth session of the Everlasting Discussion board on Folks of African Descent (PFPAD), contributors resembling Marquez will focus on requires reparations within the digital age. The discussion board says systemic inequities danger being replicated in rising applied sciences, resembling synthetic intelligence (AI).
UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres, in remarks delivered by his Chef de Cupboard Courtenay Rattray, reiterated his name for reparations, and stated there was a have to “remove bias” from AI.
“Even AI, which holds such promise for humanity, too typically mirrors and amplifies the identical inequalities and racial biases which have plagued us for hundreds of years,” Guterres stated.
Marquez stated though necessary steps had been taken by the UN within the battle for reparations, such because the creation of the PFPAD, extra have to be executed: “It isn’t sufficient to face the challenges of systemic racism the inhabitants nonetheless faces.”
Brazil’s Minister of Racial Equality Anielle Franco was amongst different politicians attending the four-day UN discussion board. Franco stated slavery was a criminal offense towards humanity and “have to be confronted with braveness”.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony in London; Further reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York; Modifying by Sharon Singleton)
