CARICOM’s Updated 10-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice: What It Demands and Why
More than a decade after Caribbean heads of government endorsed the original framework, the CARICOM Reparations Commission has updated its Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, broadening its demands to reflect a more comprehensive understanding of the injuries inflicted by slavery, colonialism, and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. The revised plan, developed under the leadership of Professor Sir Hilary Beckles and promoted by the Centre for Reparation Research, comes as the reparations movement gains renewed international momentum.
In March 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution formally recognising the transatlantic trafficking and chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. At the 50th Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in February 2026, leaders tasked the Prime Ministerial Subcommittee on Reparations with reviewing the revised plan and identifying priority actions for global engagement, including at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and other strategic forums.
The original Ten-Point Plan was adopted in 2013 and endorsed by CARICOM heads of government in July 2014. The updated version expands the framework to include dedicated provisions for gender-based violence, psychological rehabilitation, technology sovereignty, and a stronger link between reparations and sustainable development. It continues to be directed at European governments, which the Commission identifies as the legal architects of the crimes in question.
What follows is a full breakdown of each of the ten points in the updated plan, drawing on materials released by the Centre for Reparation Research.
Former colonial powers are called upon to issue a full and formal apology that acknowledges legal and moral responsibility for Indigenous genocide, African enslavement, and colonialism. The apology must identify victims and perpetrators and commit to reparatory action.
A dedicated programme to support surviving Indigenous communities through investment in land restoration, cultural preservation, economic development, and social advancement. European colonisation resulted in genocide, land dispossession, forced migration, and the destruction of Indigenous cultures across the Caribbean.
Recognition of the moral, ethical, and legal right of descendants of enslaved Africans to voluntarily return to Africa, supported through resettlement programmes funded by the nations responsible for slavery. The transatlantic slave trade separated millions of Africans from their homelands, cultures, languages, and families.
The return of stolen cultural artefacts and investment in museums, archives, research centres, and cultural education across the Caribbean and Africa. Colonialism systematically erased histories, traditions, languages, and cultural identities while removing cultural treasures from their places of origin.
Investment in healthcare systems, hospitals, research, and public health programmes to address health inequalities linked to slavery and colonialism. The Caribbean experiences disproportionately high rates of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and other non-communicable diseases, disparities the Commission attributes to the long-term consequences of colonial exploitation and forced labour.
Support for scholarships, educational partnerships, research, teacher training, and technology transfer. Colonial education systems deliberately limited educational opportunities for Indigenous and African-descended populations, producing lasting inequalities that persist across generations.
Recognition of and reparations for the specific harms suffered by Indigenous and African women and girls during slavery and colonialism. Women experienced sexual violence, forced labour, reproductive exploitation, family separation, racial discrimination, and ongoing socioeconomic inequality.
Investment in mental health services, trauma healing, research, counselling, and community rehabilitation. The trauma of genocide, slavery, racism, and colonial violence continues to affect generations of Caribbean people.
Investment in science, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, digital literacy, and intellectual property development. Colonial rule deliberately restricted technological advancement, leaving Caribbean nations at a structural competitive disadvantage entering the modern global economy.
Cancellation of unjust bilateral debt alongside direct financial compensation to repair the economic damage caused by slavery and colonialism. Many Caribbean nations inherited poverty, underdevelopment, and unsustainable debt burdens, forcing governments to borrow heavily simply to meet basic development needs.
The revised plan reflects six key expansions of the original framework. It strengthens provisions for Indigenous justice, formally recognises gender-based violence as a discrete category requiring reparation, prioritises psychological rehabilitation as a standalone demand, places greater emphasis on cultural restitution, promotes technology access and entrepreneurship, and explicitly links reparations to sustainable development and decolonisation.
The Commission describes the revised plan as reflecting “a broader and more inclusive understanding of the enduring impacts of colonialism,” one that moves beyond the economic to encompass the psychological, cultural, and gendered dimensions of colonial harm.
As the reparations movement builds pressure internationally, backed by the March 2026 UN General Assembly resolution and growing advocacy coalitions in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, CARICOM has positioned the updated Ten-Point Plan as the authoritative framework for negotiations with former colonial powers. European governments, the Commission notes, continue to object to the mandate, but the Commission says it remains optimistic that the reparatory justice programme will gain acceptance as a necessary path to progress.