Mia Mottley to deliver keynote address at major reparations conference in US

(CMC) — Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley is scheduled to deliver the keynote address on reparations during a global conference next month in Baltimore, Maryland.

According to Don Rojas, the Vincentian-born Director of Communications and International Relations for the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), the organisation has received confirmation that Mottley will attend the State of the Black World Conference V, from April 19-23, as a special guest to deliver the keynote address.

Rojas, a former press secretary for slain Grenada Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, said Mottley will join President of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in addressing the conference, which is organised around the theme, “Global Africans Rising, Empowerment Reparations and Healing.”

IBW said Mottley has emerged as “a major figure in the Caribbean advocating for stronger ties with the African Union and a global emphasis on reparatory justice with Africa playing a more active role.”

IBW noted that Mottley has called for a global summit on reparations in collaboration with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, the African Union, National African American Reparations Commission and reparations commissions from various regions of the Global Black Diaspora.

“We are honored and delighted that Prime Minister Mia Mottley has accepted our invitation to play a major role in State of the Black World Conference V,” said IBW President Dr Ron Daniels. “She has shown an eagerness to work with President Addo of Ghana in expanding and strengthening the global reparations movement.

“Once Vice-President Francia Marquez from Colombia confirms, we will have a formidable trio of leaders embracing the cause of reparatory justice as the ‘human rights issue of the 21st Century’, as proclaimed by Professor Hilary Beckles [vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies],” Daniels added.

He also said that Mottley will be presented the IBW Legacy Award at the Global Women’s Leadership Summit at the conference for her “historic role as the first woman Prime Minister of Barbados.