15th June 2020

CARICOM Reparations Commission to host virtual symposium

By CRC

The CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) in collaboration with the Saint Lucia National Reparations Committee and the Nobel Laureate Festival Committee will convene a virtual Zoom symposium on June 15 involving a number of prominent scholars, economists and public officials who will pay tribute to Saint Lucian-born economist and the Caribbean's first Nobel Prize winner, Sir Arthur Lewis.

The symposium will commence at 9 am (EST) and will be broadcast on UWItv (uwitv.org). The symposium is one of the CRC’s outreach activities for 2020 to raise awareness of the regional reparations agenda and to focus on the 200 years of unpaid labour referenced by Lewis as the basis for reparatory justice, and as a foundation for independent, sustainable development across the Caribbean. June 15, 2020 will mark the 29th anniversary of the passing of Sir Arthur Lewis.

“My colleagues and I at the CARICOM Reparations Commission are delighted to sponsor this virtual symposium to honor the life and legacy of one of the Caribbean's most esteemed sons,” said Prof. Sir Hilary Beckles, chairman of the CRC. “This symposium will seek to raise public awareness of the regional reparations agenda and to highlight Lewis's seminal work titled 'Labour in the West Indies' as a catalyst for the current reparations movement in the region."

In 1959, Lewis was appointed Vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies and in 1963 he was knighted for his contributions to economics. In 1979 he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. At the time of his retirement in 1983, Lewis was a professor of political economy at Princeton University. He served as an economic adviser to numerous African and Caribbean governments.

“The Saint Lucia National Reparations Committee (NRC) wishes to sincerely thank all who worked with us to make the 2020 SALIS possible. We urge Saint Lucia and the entire regional and global community to tune-in and participate in this event that will honour Sir Arthur Lewis,” said Earl Bousquet, chairman of Saint Lucia’s NRC. “We also wish to thank Professor Sir Hilary Beckles for his intellectual authorship, the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC), The UWI's Reparations Research Center (RRC), the CARICOM Secretariat, the Saint Lucia Nobel Laureates Festival Committee, the SALIS National Preparatory Committee (NPC), the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (SALCC) and UWI Open Campus in Saint Lucia, with special thanks to Governor General Emeritus (GGE) Dame Pearlette Louisy, Saint Lucia's Ambassador to CARICOM and OECS Elma Gene Isaac and the Regional Integration Unit (RIU) of the Office of the Prime Minister, whose critical inputs were all absolutely essential to planning and execution of this historic event of international import,” added Bousquet.

Contact: [email protected]; (592) 222-0001-6; http://caricomreparations.org

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