United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued a call for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade in a issued statement Monday to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Guterres made his call for reparations using the language of the modern day progressives:
Many of those who organized and ran the Transatlantic slave trade amassed huge fortunes. Meanwhile, the enslaved were deprived of education, healthcare, opportunity, and prosperity.
This laid the foundations for a violent discrimination system based on white supremacy that still echoes today.
…We call for reparatory justice frameworks, to help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination.
We appeal for the space and necessary conditions for healing, repair and justice.
In his address last year to the General Assembly, Guterres spoke about conditions in Africa but did not mention slavery or reparations.
Complete statement by Guterres:
For four hundred years, enslaved Africans fought for their freedom, while colonial powers and others committed horrific crimes against them.
On the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, we remember and honour the millions of Africans who were trafficked and enslaved.
Their lives were ruled by terror, as they endured rape, floggings, lynchings and other atrocities and humiliations.
Many of those who organized and ran the Transatlantic slave trade amassed huge fortunes. Meanwhile, the enslaved were deprived of education, healthcare, opportunity, and prosperity.
This laid the foundations for a violent discrimination system based on white supremacy that still echoes today.
Descendants of enslaved Africans and people of African descent are still fighting for equal rights and freedoms around the world.
Today and every day, we reject the legacy of this horrific crime against humanity.
We call for reparatory justice frameworks, to help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination.
We appeal for the space and necessary conditions for healing, repair and justice.
And above all, we resolve to work for a world free from racism, discrimination, bigotry and hate.
Together, as we remember the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, let’s unite for human rights, dignity and opportunity.
A video clip from 2022 highlights a different case for reparations:
CNN’s @DonLemon tells royal commentator Hilary Fordwich the royal family should pay reparations — immediately regrets it pic.twitter.com/LotCfBoAym
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 20, 2022
Background on Guterres via Wikipedia (excerpt):
António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, born 30 April 1949, is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socialist Party, Guterres served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.
Guterres served as secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He was elected prime minister in 1995 and announced his resignation in 2002, after his party was defeated in the 2001 Portuguese local elections. After six years governing without an absolute majority and with a poor economy, the Socialist Party did worse than expected because of losses in Lisbon and Porto, where polls indicated they had a solid lead. Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues assumed the Socialist Party leadership in January 2002, but Guterres would remain as prime minister until the general election was lost to the Social Democratic Party, led by José Manuel Barroso. Despite this defeat, polling of the Portuguese public in both 2012 and 2014 ranked Guterres the best prime minister of the previous 30 years.
He served as president of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005, and was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015.[4] Guterres was elected secretary-general in October 2016, succeeding Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of the following year and becoming the first European to hold this office since Kurt Waldheim in 1981.
