UN General Assembly
2025

In a similar vein, Madam President, we assert that justice cannot be complete without adjusting historic injustices. In the Caribbean, the stain of colonialism, slavery, and native genocide is still branded in the legacies we were left. The transatlantic slave trade was and still is the most heinous crime committed against humanity. We seek reparatory justice from those who committed those atrocities, who kept our forebears in physical chains and mental slavery for hundreds of years. Colonialism and slavery have imposed the rigid trade routes with which we now live, the underdevelopment from which we are seeking to rise up, the constraints that make us suppliers and not producers. Reparatory justice is not charity. It is principled restitution for wealth extracted, for unpaid labor, barbaric killings, and physical abuse endured by our forebears. We invite partners to engage this agenda in good faith as part of building a fairer global economy for all. Madam President, in the Middle East, we insist that Israeli hostages be released by Hamas.