WCAR Reparations Group
Posted: Saturday, September 29, 2001

Submitted by Barabara Hannah-Blake

Mrs. Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Ambassador Dudley Thompson; Hon Pearnel Charles; Lord Anthony Gifford; Ras Buju Banton; Ambassador Ms.Amina Mohamed,Permanent Mission of Kenya, Geneva, Switzerland; Ras Iral Jabari, Ichirouganaim Council Advancement of Rastafari, Barbados; David Commissiong, Director, Pan African Secretariat, Barbados; Sister Yaa Ashantewaa, Play for Peace, Johannesburg; Sister Desta Meghoo-Peddie, Center for the Study of Race Relations, University of Florida; Margaret Parsons, African Canadian Legal Clinic; E. Roy Cayetano, CEO, Ministry of Rural Development & Culture, Belize; Ras Akel Williams, Rasta Speaks; Randal Robinson, THE DEBT; William E. Spriggs, National Urban League; Alvin Dollar, Georgia Black United Fund Inc.; Negist Mengesha, Director,FIDEL; Chimurenga Waller, President, INPDUM;

Greetings, Friends!

It was wonderful to meet you and share in the historic events of the World Conference Against Racism – surely one of the most important events of the 21st Century.

The WCAR officially declared open international discussion on Reparations for the 350-year enslavement of Africans, the debilatiting effects of colonialism in the Americas and Africa, and the various approaches necessary to achieve satisfactory closure on these important issues of human rights and justice.

Accordingly, I am proposing that those of us who came together in Durban should continue sharing information, discussion and planning to enable continuity of effort and relentless pursuit of our goals, in order that the good work of the WCAR shall not have been in vain. Accordingly, you have been included in this list of Reparations activists, whom I hereby invite to communicate by means of this e-mail and keep the flame alight.

I have written a report on the WCAR which can be read in the RASTA NEWS at The Rastafari Page website: http://www.geocities.com/maskel2001. The report is not comprehensive, but selective of comments and issues directly relating to Reparations. Your comments and inputs are welcome.

Our first news is that the Pan African Secretariat in the Barbados Office of the Prime Minister is working on plans to establish a Regional Reparations Secretariat, with its first objective the holding of a Reparations Conference in Barbados in 2002 on the first anniversary of the Durban WCAR.

The plan is being co-ordinated by Ras Iral Jabari, to whom all comments and offers of assistance should be directed.

I herewith invite you to circulate through this list any suggestions, information, articles for publication in local media, and other communications of value. I will act as Co-Ordinator and media clearing house, and maintain a presence on the Internet where interested persons may visit and be informed.

I look forward to hearing from you all.  

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