Grange Wants More Support from UNESCO and UN for Activities Seeking Reparatory Justice

The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has called for support from UNESCO and the United Nations for activities that seek “Reparatory Justice for Afro-descendants of Jamaica and the Caribbean.”

This request will be highlighted at a Webinar being held to commemorate the World Day for African and Afro-Descendant Culture on January 24, 2021.

Minister Grange says that “The United Nations, having declared the International Decade for People of African Descent, must leverage its global influence to create instruments that will encourage States to develop actions and activities focused on reparatory justice.”

The theme of the Webinar which has been organised by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport through the National Council on Reparation, is People of African Descent: Defamation, Race Relations, and Developmental Institutions.

It starts at 4:00 p.m. and ends at 6:30 p.m.

Minister Grange said, “The Webinar will examine the impact of the negative portrayal of Africans and people of African descent on the socio-economic realities of our people.  The idea is to use this forum to chart a way forward for the actions which need to be taken, including in the matter of reparatory justice for our people.

“Rastafari has positioned Africa at the centre of Jamaican culture and reflecting on it all, Jamaica and Jamaicans have impacted global arts and liberation movements, including across the Continent.  We have promoted equal rights, justice, and peace, and, heralded by Bob Marley, the globally unifying concept in One Love.”

The Webinar will feature local and international presenters, notable for their engagement with African and Afro-Descendant ideologies and programmes.  These include Ms. Saadia Sanchez-Vegas, Director and Representative of the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean.  She will also read the World Day Message from H.E. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.

Other presenters are Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); Dr. Jermaine Omar McCalpin, Assistant Professor, Chair of African and American Studies; Professor Godfrey Palmer, OBE CD, Jamaica’s Honorary Consul (Scotland); Professor Earle Taylor, Jamaica’s Honorary Consul (Namibia); Mrs. Barbara Blake Hannah CD, Cultural Liaison Officer, MCGES; Ms. Nattecia Bohardsingh, BA Ll. B (Hons); Mrs. Laleta Davis Mattis, CD JP, Chair, National Council on Reparation.