A pivotal gathering for the global reparations movement is set to open its doors in Barbados in September 2026, as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) prepares to host its third regional conference focused on advancing reparatory justice for the transatlantic trafficking and chattel enslavement of African peoples. Co-hosted by the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC), the Government of Barbados, and the CARICOM Secretariat, the three-day event will run from September 17 to 19 at the Wyndham Grand Sam Lord’s Castle in Saint Philip, carrying the theme “Reparatory Justice as the Coming Enlightenment”.
This conference marks the first major CARICOM reparations forum to convene after the United Nations adopted the historic Resolution A/RES/80/250 in March 2026, a groundbreaking global agreement that formally recognized the trafficking and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as “the gravest crime against humanity”. Organizers have framed the 2026 gathering as a critical step to turn this global recognition into tangible action, centering its agenda on rolling out the updated version of the CARICOM Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice: A Manifesto for the Coming Enlightenment.
Attendees and virtual audiences will engage with programming that delivers practical, actionable guidance for implementing the revised plan, while elevating emerging perspectives on reparatory justice shaped by contemporary political discourse across Africa and the Caribbean. The conference will also foster expanded public dialogue around the updated framework, and conduct a comprehensive assessment of global progress in the reparations movement. This analysis will be contextualized within three key global milestones: the 25th anniversary of the landmark Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, the ongoing Second International Decade for People of African Descent, and the African Union Decade for Reparatory Justice.
For audiences unable to attend in person, all official sessions will be broadcast live for global viewing via the CARICOM official YouTube channel and UWI TV Channels. The opening ceremony is scheduled to kick off at 6:00 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time (AST) on Thursday, September 17, with full-day programming running from 9:30 a.m. AST on Friday, September 18, and 9:00 a.m. AST on Saturday, September 19. Media representatives covering the event are requested to arrive at the venue at least 10 minutes ahead of the scheduled start of each session.
The 2026 conference builds on more than a decade of organized regional advocacy for reparatory justice. The first CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations was hosted by St. Vincent and the Grenadines in September 2013, which served as the official launch event for the CARICOM Reparations Commission. That inaugural gathering saw the finalization of the Commission’s core Terms of Reference, and featured a landmark opening ceremony headlined by the late Hon. Bunny Wailer, OJ, who was named patron of the regional reparations movement. Just one year later, in September 2014, Antigua and Barbuda hosted the second regional conference, which brought together leading experts to host panels covering a wide spectrum of reparations-related issues aligned with the original version of the CARICOM Ten-Point Plan. The Most Hon. PJ Patterson delivered the opening keynote address, joining other regional and global leading voices in shaping the conference discussions.
Since 2014, the CRC has continued to advance the conversation through a series of targeted specialized events. These include the 2019 symposium “Western Banking, Colonialism and Reparations” held in Antigua and Barbuda, the 2020 virtual symposium “Sir William Arthur Lewis: Founder of Reparations for Caribbean Development” held amid global public health restrictions, and the 2023 CRC Tenth Anniversary Symposium “Reparations and Royalty, Africa and Europe: Exploding Myths and Empowering Truths” hosted in Jamaica.