©Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann Feb 5, 2007 1 WORKING PAPER “Reparations for the Slave Trade: Rhetoric, Law, History and Political Realities” Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann Canada Research Chair International Human Rights Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
[email protected], +1 (519) 884-0710 ext 2780 Neither this paper, nor any part of it, is to be reproduced or circulated without permission of the author. Note to Readers: This paper is drawn from my book in progress (with Anthony P. Lombardo), Reparations to Africa, especially chapter 5 (“The Slave Trade: Law and Rhetoric”), chapter 6 “The Slave Trade: Debates,” and chapter 1, “Reparations to Africa: A New Kind of Justice.” Introduction This paper considers the call for reparations to Africa from the West, for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, as a form of transitional justice between regions (the West and Africa), which might result in better understanding—and less political resentment, between the two areas. Nevertheless, the call for reparations is so far ridden with rhetorical over-statements, misunderstandings of international law, and misinterpretations C:/reparations/working papers/UConn march 12 07 ©Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann Feb 5, 2007 2 of history. These are unlikely to result in any material reparations from the West to Africa for the slave trade. The discussion below focuses especially on the 2001 United Nations World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and on the call for reparations by the Group of Eminent Persons (GEP) established by the Organization of African Unity in 1992. The two remaining active members of the GEP in the early twenty-first century were Ali Mazrui and Jacob Ajayi.