GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The Caribbean Community (Caricom) has welcomed British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s openness to a formal apology for slavery and structured dialogue with affected countries, but insists that reparatory justice must remain central to any discussions.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Caricom Chair and Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister, Philip J Pierre, said the Community was ready to engage with the United Kingdom but rejected Burnham’s position that reparations were not “the right answer”.

Burnham, who is due to attend the November 1-4 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, has said he is “open” to listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of Britain for its role in the slave trade, but ruled out considering financial reparations.

READ: UK PM ‘open’ to slavery apology but not reparations

“I do not believe that is the right answer,” he wrote in the Guardian. “I do not think that British people today can be held liable for historical wrongs, however heinous, that happened in a different age under different laws and in which they played no personal part.”

Burnham instead offered a “structured dialogue” with those affected by the slave trade: “Having these difficult conversations to safeguard the Commonwealth for the future is the right thing to do. It is also the patriotic thing to do. Not just because it is in our interests, but because the Britain I believe in is confident, decent and brave. We led the world in abolishing slavery – and we can show leadership again today.”

“I want to express my sorrow and regret for the pain and suffering of so many millions and to recognise the way it still shapes our world today,” he added.

Pierre said Burnham’s expression of personal sorrow and regret for the suffering caused by slavery and its continuing effects, together with his willingness to consider a formal apology on behalf of the British state, represented a significant development.

“No British Prime Minister has gone this far before. It would be wrong of us not to say so, and we welcome it in the spirit in which it appears to be offered,” Pierre said. “For more than a decade, this Community has asked for exactly such a dialogue. We are ready to engage.”

However, the Caricom Chair said the Community did not accept the argument that reparations were inappropriate or that Britain’s responsibility had ended because present-day citizens had not personally participated in slavery.

“Reparatory justice has never been about individual guilt. It is about the responsibility of states and institutions – and that responsibility does not expire with the passing of generations,” he said.

Pierre pointed to Britain’s role in legislating for, protecting and profiting from slavery, as well as its decision to compensate enslavers at Emancipation while formerly enslaved people received no land, wealth or compensation.

He noted that the loan raised to compensate enslavers was still being repaid by British taxpayers until February 2015.

The consequences of slavery, he said, continue to be felt across the Caribbean through chronic disease, inequalities in education and opportunity, economies shaped by extraction, national debt and vulnerability to economic and climate shocks.

Pierre said a formal apology would be an important first step, but argued that it must be accompanied by practical measures to address the lasting effects of slavery.

He pointed to Caricom’s Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, which includes a formal apology, public health, education and training, cultural heritage restitution and reconnection, psychological rehabilitation, technology and innovation, entrepreneurship, debt cancellation, monetary compensation and decolonisation.

He said the proposed dialogue must allow for discussion of every element of the plan, as well as reparations for the genocide of Indigenous Peoples and the harm caused to people brought from India and China to sustain colonial systems.

“A dialogue that begins by placing reparations outside the room cannot be a complete dialogue,” Pierre said.

The Caricom Chair also acknowledged the United Kingdom’s initiative, to be led by former British prime minister Gordon Brown, to restructure the debt of the poorest Commonwealth countries.

He said the Community would examine the proposal seriously but cautioned that most Caricom member states were classified as middle- or high-income economies and were routinely excluded from concessional relief despite their vulnerability to climate and economic shocks.

“Any initiative that is to be meaningful for our region must measure vulnerability, not income alone,” he said, adding that debt relief could not be used as a substitute for reparatory justice.

Pierre said the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Reparations, led by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, and the Caricom Reparations Commission, chaired by Sir Hilary Beckles, were prepared to work with the British Government on the terms, agenda and timetable for structured dialogue.

He said he looked forward to meeting Burnham in Antigua and Barbuda in the coming days, as the country prepares to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

“Our ancestors did not receive justice in their lifetime. We owe it to them, and to the generations who will come after us, to see this work through – with dignity, with patience, and with resolve,” Pierre said.