Caribbean Leaders Demand Formal Apology and Debt Cancellation from Britain Ahead of Commonwealth Summit
The CARICOM Reparations Commission rejects improved repayment terms, insisting that Prime Minister Andy Burnham must acknowledge the historical 'black debt' before King Charles III addresses the heads of government.
By Lucas Collins ·
The Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community (CRC of CARICOM) stated on Monday that Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s recent openness to a formal apology is a necessary first step. The commission argued that the UK must move beyond expressions of regret to offer a full apology and concrete reparations. This demand comes ahead of King Charles III’s scheduled address to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua on Tuesday.
The CRC of CARICOM has long sought a dialogue on apology and reparations, noting that previous British leaders have offered only sorrow. In 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron rejected calls for slavery reparations. At that time, he announced a 25-million-pound project to build a new prison in Jamaica to house Jamaican nationals serving long sentences in UK prisons. The current shift in stance by Burnham appears timed to coincide with civil society protests in Antigua.
According to the CARICOM Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, a formal apology serves as a gesture of goodwill. It would acknowledge the shared history between Europe and the Caribbean. The commission emphasized that such an apology must accept responsibility for crimes against humanity. This includes the complicity in native genocide and the perpetuation of chattel slavery.
The commission rejected the idea that reparations can be limited to improved debt repayment conditions. It pointed to the economic theories of Sir Arthur Lewis, a key figure in the Caribbean reparations movement. In his 1939 book, Labour in the West Indies, Lewis described the over 200 years of unpaid labor extracted from enslaved people as a debt that Britain has yet to repay.
The CRC of CARICOM aligned its stance with recent international documents. These include Ghana’s March 2026 United Nations Resolution and the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination’s General Recommendation No 40. These documents state that the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans created a racialized regime of violence. This system reduced Africans and their descendants to property and established enduring hierarchies of race and gender.
The commission called for a conversation focused on actual reparations, specifically debt cancellation and monetary compensation. It challenged the narrative that abolition was a benevolent act by Britain. The group noted that enslaved people, such as Chief Takyi in Jamaica, and revolutionaries in Ayiti led the fight for freedom. It argued that former colonisers have not fully acknowledged that African jurisprudence viewed trafficking and enslavement as wrongful acts.
The CRC of CARICOM maintained that a crime does not disappear until justice is achieved. It stated that the UK cannot avoid responsibility for its actions simply because it is a former coloniser. The commission demanded that Britain cancel debts and pay monetary compensation to address the lingering legacies of colonialism and chattel slavery.
