Colombia's VP calls on former colonial powers to confront past as UN forum opens

Catarina Demony - Reuters - 14/04
Colombia's Vice President Francia Marquez, an advocate of slavery reparations, urged former colonial powers to take responsibility for their past wrongs and called for a global reparations fund, at a United Nations forum on Monday.
  • Colombia's Marquez urges colonial powers to address slavery's legacy
  • Reparations debate faces opposition from European leaders
  • UN forum discusses AI's role in perpetuating racial biases
April 14 (Reuters) - Colombia's Vice President Francia Marquez, an advocate of slavery reparations, urged former colonial powers to take responsibility for their past wrongs and called for a global reparations fund, at a United Nations forum on Monday.
In her opening speech at the fourth session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) in New York, Marquez said the fund would be used to help eradicate legacies of slavery and colonialism, without providing further details.

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"Colonial states, states that fostered... that form of domination based on the definition of race have to assume the responsibility of restoring the human dignity of people of African descent," Marquez earlier told Reuters in an interview.
While the issue of reparations has gained momentum worldwide, from Africa to the Caribbean, so has the backlash. Many of Europe's leaders have opposed even talking about reparations.
Marquez, a celebrated environmental activist, was elected in 2022 and is Colombia's first Black woman vice president.
At least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and sold into slavery from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Hundreds of thousands were shipped to Colombia.
Marquez said many ...
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