The Principles and Politics of Reparations.

(Chapter 1)

Since gaining independence, nations like africa, Asia and the caribbean have witnessed an
increased numbers of formal apologies and statements of regrets in respect to imperial crimes.
These statements come from governments who acknowledge the evidences of crimes against
humanity committed by their citizens.
According to the permanent court of International Justice, “The essential principle contained in
the actual notion of an illegal activities is that reparation must, as far as possible, wipe out all the
consequences of the illegal activities and re-establish the situation which would, in all
probability, have existed if that act had not been committed.”

The underlying principle within international law is that redress for human injustices is possible
and can be obtained as a result of judicial redress.
It has been shown that legislation have greater flexibility than the courts in cases of Reparations.

Mari Matsuda claims that a human injustice attracts a claim of Reparations once they meet these
three criterias
1. The injustice must be well documented and the historical data should withstand scientific
scrutiny. In the case of the caribbean, there is an abundance of general evidence
acknowledged by political and judicial institutions.
2. The victims must be identifiable as a specific group. The natives of the caribbean who
survived British genocide ax well as descendents of enslaved Africans constitute
identifiable communities that have suffered criminally at the hands of European colonists.
3. The current members of this group must continue to suffer harm. The descendents of the
native people as well as the Africans experience a system of post slavery apartheid that
focuses on race and ethnicity. This system is connected to the past injustices.
Accordingly, the nature of these historic disasters is recognised by international law and
provisions have made for the presentation of these reparation cases.

The system of chattel enslavement was based on the legal reduction of blacks to being property
and real estate, denying them any rights of life and human recognition.

The Privacy Principles and Remoteness

The concept of Remoteness seeks to establish that there are time limitations upon the concept of
Reparations. (Uk)
Both concepts claim slavery took place a long time ago, and neither victims nor perpetrators are
alive to answer for the case of Reparations.