Caribbean Reparations in Focus: Push for Justice, Curriculum Reform, and Institutional Accountability.
By Awa B | 8 December 2025
Summary
The Caricom Reparations Commission met with UK officials to push for recognition of colonial harms and advance its updated 10-point reparations plan.
Awareness of Britain’s role in slavery is low, but support for action is growing, including calls for formal apologies and stronger public education.
The CRC prioritises curriculum changes, while UK museums face pressure to address colonial histories and consider restitution.
Increased negotiations and activism may lead to policy changes, expanded education on colonialism, and long-term reforms aligned with global reparations efforts.
Context
The Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC) met with UK parliamentarians, Caribbean and African Union diplomats, academics, and civil society groups from 17 to 20 November 2025. This visit served the purpose for Britian to acknowledge and address the impact of the colonialism and transatlantic slave trade. It also sought to promote public education on this history. This was the first in a series of engagements aimed at “raising awareness, correcting misconceptions, and building strategic partnerships to move this important agenda forward.”
The CRC outlined a 10-point plan that included demands such as debt relief, formal apologies, and financial compensation. While the UK has rejected the call for direct compensation, it has expressed openness to non-financial measures. This plan, first adopted in 2014, has since been revised to reflect new global dynamics and historical research. The CRC’s visit to the UK signals a new chapter in the global movement for reparatory justice, with far-reaching social, political, and diplomatic consequences.
Impact on awareness:
The CRC’s visit is likely to transform public awareness in the UK. A recent poll found that 85% of Britons were unaware of the scale of the UK’s involvement in the slave trade (Reuters, 2025). Raising awareness can increase public support and pressure on policymakers.
Reparations
Reparations are not solely financial. According to the CRC, they involve formal recognition, official apologies, and structural reforms to address the lasting effects of colonialism and slavery.
Reparations provide moral accountability, repair historical injustices, and create pathways for systemic change. By working with social movements like the Repair Campaign, the CRC is advancing a model that could influence other former colonial powers.
Public support is growing: a recent poll found 63% of UK respondents favour a formal apology, while 40% support financial compensation. This demonstrates the urgency of implementing both symbolic and tangible measures of reparatory justice.
Curriculum Reform in the Education System
Education is also the focus of the CRC’s reparations agenda. Recent polls indicate that 78% of UK respondents believe schools should teach Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery and colonialism. CRC’s 10-point plan calls for new educational programs designed to:
Close gaps in historical knowledge
Correct misconceptions
Ensure that future generations understand the ongoing impact of colonialism.
These reforms are framed as both justice and prevention, helping students and citizens in the UK and Caribbean recognise and resist the effects of historical wrongs.
Cultural Institutions Under Scrutiny
UK heritage institutions are increasingly under public and political pressure to confront their colonial pasts. The British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) have acknowledged links to imperial exploitation, including the acquisition of looted artefacts, and have introduced initiatives such as the “Collecting & Empire” trail to provide historical context.
The V&A’s director has called for legislative reform to allow permanent restitution, highlighting ongoing legal and ethical constraints. These debates go beyond returning objects: they reflect a wider cultural reckoning in which the public demands that institutions explicitly acknowledge links to slavery and empire and present collections in ways that do not whitewash historical harms.
This scrutiny of museums ties directly to the CRC’s UK visit, which emphasises curriculum reform and public education. As institutions revise their narratives, pressure grows on schools and universities to do the same. The key question remains: if museums offer only symbolic changes, will they support the deeper reforms the CRC seeks?
David Stanley/Wikimedia
Forecast
Short-term (Now - 3 months)
There is a realistic possibility that negotiations and public education efforts following the CRC’s visit to the UK will intensify, with Caribbean delegations pressing the British government on both formal recognition and institutional dialogue.
This will likely prompt broader media coverage regarding Britain’s colonial legacy and the global reparations agenda.
Additionally, public awareness campaigns, museum exhibitions, and digital initiatives could emerge to complement these efforts, further shaping public opinion.
Medium-term (3-12 months)
It is likely that continued activism by Caribbean leaders and allied diaspora groups will promote visible policy shifts.
Expanded classroom initiatives could introduce comprehensive teaching of slavery and colonial history into UK and Caribbean school systems, alongside formal apologies and Commonwealth-driven programs for youth engagement.
Long-term (>1 year)
There is a realistic possibility that the reparations movement, aligned with the African Union’s “Decade of Reparations”, will drive sustained changes in historical education, memorial culture, and policy frameworks for reparatory justice across Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa.
