April 24, 2022
Your Royal Highness,
The matter of slavery, the transatlantic slave trade and their lingering effects continue to engage
our attention in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean Region. I was heartened to learn
of your expression of profound sorrow over slavery during your recent tour of Belize, Jamaica and the
Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
Empathy, I believe, is the beginning of a process that should lead to reparation for the ills and
inequity suffered during slavery and the consequences experienced today by the societies of this region.
Your acknowledgement is most timely. I wish to suggest that the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland examine closely the great disparities and inequities that remain between our societies
and offer to the Caribbean reparation for the results of the atrocities of slavery and the transatlantic slave
trade. This issue is important for us in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean and I believe that we
should ensure a level of compensation for the descendants of those who were shackled, separated from their
families, force into s lave labour, beaten and killed as a result of the transatlantic slave trade.
Indeed, as the world acknowledged on 29 March the International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, I am asking you to use your voice to take a leadership
role in declaring that reparation must be part of the critical collective action needed to reduce inequalities,
eliminate racial discrimination and correct injustice.
The transatlantic slave trade ended over two centuries ago, but the pain and the ideas that propelled
it remain alive today. Your decisive voice and action can reverse the observation that the descendants of
the enslaved continue to pay a heavy price for the damage wrought by slavery.
I take this opportunity to extend to you, Your Royal Highness, the assurances of my highest
consideration and esteem.
