Colonial State Crimes and the CARICOM Mobilization for Reparation and Justice

Abstract

Colonial rule in the Caribbean was based on the normalization, legalization and naturalization of violence, genocide, slavery, torture, dispossession and plunder, to the point that the victims of these colonial state crimes and their descendants continue to suffer the consequences. This article has a twofold aim: firstly, it discusses the Caribbean experiences with colonial state crimes and secondly, it analyses the Caribbean Community and Common Market's (CARICOM's) mobilization for reparations for the harm caused by the violence of colonialism and slavery as an example of decolonial justice. To accomplish this, a threefold analysis is conducted: (1) an exposition of the concept of colonial state crimes from a Caribbean perspective, (2) a brief depiction of the colonization and enslavement processes in the Caribbean and (3) a discussion of the CARICOM mobilization for reparations and justice. Thus, this article aims to initiate a debate on the importance of revisiting state crimes in colonial contexts and their continuity in the present.