海角大神

More than a year after Black Lives Matter protests launched a worldwide reckoning about the centuries of racism that Black people continue to face, the question of reparations emerged 鈥� unevenly 鈥� as a high-profile issue at this year鈥檚 largest gathering of world leaders.

At the U.N. General Assembly, African and Caribbean countries that stand to benefit from reparations were backed by other nations, though those most responsible for slavery and colonialism said little about what they might owe to African descendants.

Leaders from Africa (South Africa and Cameroon) to the Caribbean (Saint Kitts & Nevis and Saint Lucia) were joined by representatives of countries that are unlikely to be tapped to pay up 鈥� Cuba and Malaysia among them 鈥� in explicitly endorsing the creation of reparation systems.

Those missing from the renewed global conversation on the topic, though, were noteworthy as well: the United States, Britain, and Germany, wealthy and developed nations built from conquests of varying kinds.

鈥淐aribbean countries like ours, which were exploited and underdeveloped to finance the development of Europe, have put forward a case for reparations for slavery and native genocide, and we expect that case to be treated with the seriousness and urgency it deserves,鈥� said Philip J. Pierre, prime minister of Saint Lucia. 鈥淭here should be no double standards in the international system in recognizing, acknowledging, and compensating victims of crimes against humanity.鈥�

A look at who is and isn鈥檛 talking about the issue this past week is a sign that while the movement supporting literal payback to the African continent and the forced diaspora that ravaged it is growing, the substantive engagement of major powers 鈥� however apologetic 鈥� is limited.

U.S. President Joe Biden, for example, made no mention of it in his address, though the White House earlier this year said it supported studying reparations for Black Americans. And the office of its U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who is African American, wouldn鈥檛 comment on the recent reparations discussions.

Monetary atonement for America鈥檚 history of slavery is a seminal question in the world鈥檚 attempt to reconcile with what South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called 鈥渙ne of the darkest periods in the history of humankind, and a crime of unparalleled barbarity.鈥�

鈥淚ts legacy persists in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, and in Africa itself,鈥� Mr. Ramaphosa said at a meeting on reparations during the General Assembly. 鈥淢illions of the descendants of Africans who were sold into slavery remain trapped in lives of underdevelopment, disadvantage, discrimination, and poverty.鈥�

Slavery in what became the U.S. began more than 400 years ago with slaves forcibly transported by ship from Africa. The debate about reparations has been ongoing ever since slavery was abolished in 1865.

In recent years, the issue has languished in Congress for more than three decades, though reparations have gained traction in a smattering of cities and local governments as the country continues to grapple with fallout from the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Carla Ferstman, an international law expert who studies reparations as a professor at the University of Essex, said the U.N. talks this session mark a significant milestone for the global reparations movement that has been brewing for 20 years.

What remains to be seen is how it unfolds between individual nations 鈥� and how transformative the results are. While each reparations program would specifically be between the perpetrators and the victims鈥� descendants, the conversation to rectify wrongs in history has now become universal.

鈥淚t鈥檚 universal,鈥� Ms. Ferstman said, 鈥渂ecause inequity is universal.鈥�

Valued reparations to address harm could come in the form of direct financial payments for individuals, developmental aid for countries, the return of colonized land, treasured artifacts and cultural items, systemic corrections of policies and laws that may still oppress, and the kind of full-throated apologies and acknowledgements that wipe aside certain historical figures that were once celebrated as national heroes.

鈥淧eople perceive their harms in very different ways 鈥� this perception of how the wrongs happened and how they manifested in terms of later generations,鈥� Ms. Ferstman said. 鈥淥ne needs to be sensitive to what is important and how to best rectify.鈥�

The latest discussions on reparations came as the U.N. commemorated an important but contentious 2001 anti-racism conference in South Africa that resulted in what is known as the Durban Declaration.

A new resolution adopted at the commemoration meeting last Wednesday acknowledged some progress but deplored what it called a rise in discrimination, violence, and intolerance directed at people of African heritage and many other groups 鈥� from the Roma to refugees, the young to the old, people with disabilities to displaced people.

There was even a discussion devoted to reparations, though it didn鈥檛 go unnoticed during that talk that last week鈥檚 new declaration stopped short of demanding nations must pay reparations to those their government harmed.

It said only that there should be a way for descendants to seek 鈥渏ust and adequate reparation or satisfaction for any damage suffered.鈥� That was despite the U.N. Human Rights Council鈥檚 explicit recommendation for reparations in a major milestone report in June.

鈥淲hile reparations could not compensate or right all the wrongs that had been done against the people of African descent, they could go a long way in addressing systemic racism that still lingers in the society today, in bringing about a level playing field to realize their true potentials,鈥� Syed Mohamad Hasrin Aidid, head of Malaysia鈥檚 U.N. mission, said at Wednesday鈥檚 meeting.

The United States, Britain, and Germany were among the dozens of countries that didn鈥檛 attend the Durban commemoration last week because of persisting grievances about the conference 20 years ago, when the U.S. boycotted it over references to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. U.N. officials for Britain and Germany didn鈥檛 immediately respond for requests to comment.

But Germany鈥檚 president, in his General Assembly address, also didn鈥檛 mention reparations, though his is one of the few countries that have directed money to make up for its colonial-era actions.

Early this year, Germany officially recognized the massacre of tens of thousands of people in Namibia as genocide and agreed to provide 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for projects that are expected to stretch over 30 years to help the communities affected. That announcement pointedly did not label Germany鈥檚 initiative as formal reparations.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.聽