The UWI Regional
Headquarters, Jamaica. Thursday, November 5, 2020.
Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (The UWI),
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles addressed the United Nations Security
Council (UNSC) on Tuesday, November 3, as part of a live, open debate
on Peacebuilding and Sustaining
Peace.

The meeting was
chaired by His Excellency, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines who holds the presidency of the
Security Council for November 2020, and opened with remarks from
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ms Amina J. Mohammed.

With an aim to
facilitate the exchange of views about the security impacts of modern
day conflict drivers and instability, the open debate gathered
delegates from around the world, including government Ministers and
International Agency Heads. Sir Hilary was the only University
Vice-Chancellor invited to participate in the high level meeting
which was carried live on The UWI’s public education platform,
UWItv.

In his
presentation, he addressed reparatory justice as a development
paradigm for Caribbean nations and other nations built upon these
legacies, stating, “Injustice
anywhere is the seed of instability and violence everywhere. The
Caribbean, Africa and its diaspora are calling for the reconciliation
of peace within the context of reparatory justice.”

He
described the Caribbean as being determined to be “the freest zone
of humanity in the world. It celebrates the global industry of
tourism which is effectively the invitation industry of humanity and
its generosity,” he said. “From this space of respected tolerance
comes the greatest movement of the 21st
century—the reparatory justice movement against the legacies of
slavery, violent colonisation and institutional racism.”

“CARICOM
has embraced the economic development paradigm framed around
reparatory justice that calls for a ‘finance plan’ within the
tradition of the post-war Marshall Plan that promoted economic
reconstruction in Europe. Such a plan was proposed by Sir Arthur
Lewis for the West Indies Federation and was rejected by the British
government, though a similar proposal from the Asian colonies was
accepted and became known as the Colombo Plan which laid the basis of
economic development in postcolonial Asia.”

He
called on the Security Council to acknowledge and support the
reparatory justice framework and movement that have emerged from the
need to repair the continuing suffering caused by extreme extractive
colonialism and its instruments of slavery and indenture, and told
the Council that The UWI has offered itself as a broker and
negotiator of the conversation.