IDPADAG takes complaint over the withdrawal of Govt subvention to UN

Jun 05, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADAG), has taken its complaint over the withdrawal of the Government’s multimillion-dollar subvention to the United Nations (UN).

During a presentation on global reparatory justice before the UN, Attorney–at–Law, Nigel Hughes who was on the IDPADAG delegation spoke of the need for greater equity in Guyana opportunities offered to Afro- Guyanese citizens. These cannot be achieved through photo opportunities, Hughes said.

Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes

The lawyer noted that in terms of the national redress for the lasting consequences of past injustices and crimes against people of African Descent, the State has demonstrated only a modicum of progress in this regard, through a Land Commission of Inquiry conducted in December 2018.

“None of the recommendations has been actioned to date. There has been no action on the Dutch apology for the benefit of African Guyanese. In September 2021, within these hallowed halls, President of Guyana, Dr. Irfaan Ali registered support for global reparations and restorative justice.”

According to Hughes, while the President further stated that his government would work towards the goal of eliminating racism, the situation in Guyana reveals too many instances of State oppression and exacerbation of racial tensions.

He explained that, “For example, the State has defunded the IDPADA-G based on its perception that the organisation held an opposing view of the government thereby stymieing its work…It is imperative that the Government of Guyana establishes a national commission that commences at a minimum two national assessments of the African Guyanese contribution to the development of Guyana with a view to compensation.”

He recommended as part of the first step to a solution of a National Reparations Commission (NRC) should be a review of the Venn Commission Report of 1948-1949 which documents the contribution of enslaved people to the development to the British Guiana Sugar Industry under inhumane conditions without compensation.

In this regard, Hughes made reference to the Venn Commission Report of 1949, the colonial enterprise required hand labour to transform 15,000 square miles of coastal swampland to lands for sugar cane cultivation and for attending offices and housing for European planters.

In fact, he said “the vast hydraulic system – three – involved moving more than 100 million tons of mud, by hand labor was first carried out by enslaved Africans”, an enormous task for which there was no compensation.

As such, he said IDPADA-G calls on the Government of Guyana and International justice mechanisms to use these assessments to determine a national compensation package set aside from national revenues coupled with other forms of affirmative action.

“IDPADA-G draws attention to the threat to villages purchased by freed Africans in the post-emancipation era, which have been subject to arbitrary possession by the State or other entities under its control and patronage. The continued dispossession of ancestral lands has stymied growth and development in our villages.

Similarly, IDPADA-G draws attention to the area of natural resources, quarrying, mining, forestry, and agriculture, and recommends that the State and international bodies address inequalities in access to permits and titles with alacrity, “Hughes added.

He noted too that the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission has been unfairly denying quarrying concessions to African Guyanese with no course of redress.
“IDPADA-G draws attention to the absence of investment in the preservation of African Guyanese history and culture and calls on the Government of Guyana to develop institutions to address loss of culture, enhance public recognition and understanding of the lasting consequences of systemic and structural racism and the incorporation of that history into textbooks.

IDPADA-G recommends that states be called on to provide ethnically disaggregated data and to report to the Permanent Forum or UN Special Mechanisms on steps taken towards reparative justice for persons of African Descent in all sectors,” he explained.