UK ALL-PARTY PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST AFRIKANS

Dear Prime Minister

RE: CALL TO ESTABLISH A UK ALL-PARTY PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION TO EXAMINE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST AFRIKANS & PEOPLE OF AFRIKAN DESCENT

We call upon UK Government to abandon its unjust, economically unsound, and in some instances, discriminatory austerity measures. As a special measure in this connection, PARCOE is making the reparations case for Afrikans and people of Afrikan descent to be excluded from the government's austerity measures as a matter of positive discrimination. The Legacies of British Slave Ownership Project at University College London (UCL) has established that after the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act about 46,000 people were paid a total of £20 million- the equivalent of 40 per cent of all annual government spending at the time in British colonies in the Caribbean, Mauritius and southern Afrika. Not only was this a huge bailout which was relatively speaking, bigger than the bailout of the bankers in recent years; the socio-economic legacies of the intergenerational transmission of unjust enrichment and unjust impoverishment remain a reality for the descendants of the enslavers and the enslaved respectively. As a result of the UCL research, it is now known that ancestors of several present-day politicians, including yourself, were some of the 3,000 compensated 'Slave owners' in Britain. Going beyond individual families, the wealth generated as a result of the British state sanctioned and sponsored institution of Afrikan chattel, colonial and neocolonial enslavement helped to build modern Britain and its institutions. The enslaved and their descendants, however, have not been restored or received justice for the serious violations of human and peoples' rights and inequalities we continue to experience. Given that the damage sustained by Afrikan peoples is not a thing of the past but is painfully manifest in the damaged lives of contemporary Afrikans, we have a right to pursue holistic reparations as heirs to those who experienced chattel and colonial enslavement and as direct victims of neocolonial forms of enslavement and slavery-like practices. Such rights to reparations are not based on the past abuses of chattel and colonial enslavement but on its contemporary effects. As Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of the Republic of Ghana reminded us in his 1968 Message to the Black People of Britain, the majority of Afrikans in Britain are not here by chance or by choice but rather for historical reasons because Britain and other European nations colonised our Motherland Afrika as well as Caribbean countries and reduced them to the level of colonial status. European neocolonialism is still strangling our countries of origin creating the push and pull factors compelling many people of Afrikan descent to come to these shores, both in the past and present, as economic migrants and/or political refugees.

According to the United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to A Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law an essential aspect of reparations include, among other measures: investigation of the facts, official acknowledgement and apology, receipt of answers; an opportunity for victims to speak in a public forum about his/her experiences and to have active involvement in the reparative process. PARCOE therefore advocates the need for honest dialogue between legitimate representatives of Afrikan heritage communities in Britain, including ourselves in PARCOE, and the British Government, Parliament and other interested state and non-state bodies within the UK on how best to redress the harmful legacies of enslavement. These legacies include: imposition of a state of civil and social death for people of Afrikan descent, racially motivated violence and killings, racial disproportionality in all aspects of the administration and functioning of the justice system, early and easy criminalisation, disproportionate institutionalisation under the Mental Health Act; unwarranted deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody; and a failure to uphold the civil, political, social, economic, cultural and peoples' rights of Afrikans and people of Afrikan descent. We urge that this dialogue takes place by establishing a UK All-Party Parliamentary Commission to: acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of the imposition of Afrikan chattel, colonial and neocolonial enslavement within and beyond the British Empire; examine subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against Afrikans and people of Afrikan descent; examine the impact of these forces on living Afrikans and Afrikan descendant communities, as well as all other peoples; make recommendations to Parliament and similar bodies at local, national and international levels, including the European Parliament, and; determine appropriate methods of dissemination of findings to the public within and beyond Britain for consultation about proposals for redress, repairs and for other purposes.

We note that from 13th to 17th May 2013, the first European Week for the Recognition of Colonisation, Colonial Slavery and Compensation was held at the European Parliament. Initiated by MEPs Jean-Jacob Bicep and Eva Joly, this programme included a submission on the establishment of a European Day in Recognition of the Victims of Slavery and European Colonisation. In support of this initiative, we call upon the UK Government to exercise leadership in acknowledging and addressing the social and economic legacies of enslavement on contemporary generations of Afrikans and people of Afrikan descent. We believe that the above All-Party Parliamentary Commission will have far reaching effects which will go a long way towards the reparative process of restoring equity in addition to enabling racial justice and healing between the descendants of the enslaved and the enslavers. We look forward to hearing from you as to what the Government will do to honour the need and right of the descendants of the enslaved to speak in a public forum, provide testimony and evidence of how the legacies of enslavement are resulting in continued human and peoples' rights violations and impaired quality of life today.

Yours Sincerely

Esther Stanford-Xosei & Kofi Mawuli Klu
Co-Vice Chairs, PARCOE (Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe)