The 12th Summit, Culture and Trade Expo of the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation (CRO) ended in Barbados on Monday 8th December with delegates from ten Caribbean islands, viz. Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Thomas, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago, returning to their respective countries following five days of deliberations.

After 10 years of existence during which the CRO has focused on lobbying for Reparations and Repatriation to the African continent, its members acted purposefully to ratify the Draft Constitution and to open nominations for the first new executive of this the Ethiopian Millennium. Nominations will remain open until March 31, 2009 with the election of officers slated for the next meeting of the organization tentatively scheduled for next August in Nevis. Triple Crown Culture Yard and Bankie Banx’s Rodney House of Anguilla are Family Members of the CRO and so can participate in the process of nomination and election as both are fully paid up and active. Both will also begin working immediately to ensure the success of the Rastafari Youth Camp that will be held in Anguilla in 2010.

Two resolutions were among the outputs of the Summit. The first was really a Statement in support of the call for an independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the death of illustrious Rastafari son, a young, qualified engineer, I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney on June 17, 2008. The other was a Resolution urging all Caribbean governments and civil society organizations to participate in the upcoming review of progress made since the United Nations (UN) World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa in 2001. That conference was attended by over 10,000 people from all regions of the world and 168 countries produced the consensus document known as the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (POA). The Durban Declaration and POA is considered to be a landmark document in advancing the demand for Reparations by descendants of the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans. Rastafari has always been at the forefront of this demand.

The review will look at how far governments have reached in implementing the actions recommended in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. The Durban Conference ended on September 8th 2001 and then came September 11, 2001, shifting entirely the focus of the world away from justice to the matter of security.

While in Barbados, Ras Iral Talma, Chair of the CRO Reparations and Repatriation Committee and I, in the capacity of Executive Director of the CRO, met at the Parliament building with the Hon. Hamilton Lashley Independent Member of Parliament, and Mr. Roosevelt King the Secretary General of the Barbados Association of NGOs (BANGO). This MP has been invited by the Government of Barbados to advise them on social affairs. The meeting with CRO representatives agreed that the Hon. MP would table a resolution on Reparations in Parliament early in 2009 and would support the CRO call to CARICOM for the establishment of a Working Group on Rastafari populations. The African Millennium is the time of the return to the African continent with reparations, reconciliation and restitution. This is a right.

The CRO Resolution on the UN WCAR Review follows:
12th CRO SUMMIT
Queen’s Park, Barbados

RESOLUTION ON CARIBBEAN GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE INVOLVEMENT IN THE UN WCAR REVIEW, GENEVA – APRIL 15-17, 2009

We the members and affiliates of The Caribbean Rastafari Organisation (CRO), gathered for its 12th Summit in Barbados on December 4-8, 2008, call on Caribbean Governments and People to prioritize implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action as agreed by 168 Member Countries of the United Nations (UN).

Whereas the UN Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and other Related Forms of Intolerance (WCAR) held in Durban in 2001, acknowledged the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (TAST) as a crime against humanity and will be reviewed in Geneva in April 2009;

And Whereas the CRO has been lobbying members of the Caribbean Community and African Union who are also Members of the United Nations, to implement the special measures contained in the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (POA), with special interest in the “Facilitation of welcomed return and resettlement of the descendants of enslaved Africans;”

And Whereas Section IV of the Durban PoA recommends “provision of effective remedies, recourse, redress, and other measures at the national, regional and international levels”;

And Whereas Articles 157 of Section IV of the Durban (POA) recognizes the efforts and challenges of developing countries to address poverty and underdevelopment and call for additional financial resources;

And Whereas Article 158 of the said section links “historical injustices” with “the need to develop programmes for the social and economic development of these societies and the Diaspora, within the framework of a new partnership based on the spirit of solidarity and mutual respect”.

Be it resolved that the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation strongly encourages governments of the CARICOM to:

(i) urgently review progress on the Durban POA at the national level.

(ii) enable Rastafari representation on the delegations of government and/or civil society organizations at the UN WCAR Review in Geneva in April 2009.

(iii) engage with the Rastafari community in the implementation of the Durban Delaration and Programme of Action in the way forward.

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