Minister within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Steven Jacobs today said the second United Nations Decade for People of African Descent must be about action and delivery, and not just only commitments.

Speaking on behalf of CARICOM at the Fifth Session of the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent on Reparations, Sustainable Development and Economic Justice, this morning in Geneva Switzerland, the Minister said there are still imbalances as a result of colonialism.

He said there must be a reshaping of the global system to ensure that the injustices faced, especially in the region, are rectified.

“The legacies of enslavement and colonialism remain embedded in global systems, reflected in persistent economic imbalances and constrained development pathways. For Small Island Developing States, these challenges are further intensified by climate change. Addressing these interconnected realities requires coherence—across reparatory justice, reform of the international financial architecture, and urgent, equitable climate action. The Second International Decade must therefore be a decade of delivery—where commitments translate into measurable progress in the lives of people of African descent,” Mr. Jacobs told the Forum.

Mr. Jacobs reminded the forum that the story of people of African descent has often been shaped by injustice, dispossession, exclusion, and the consequences continue to dictate present realities.

He said while the recent recognition by the United Nations General Assembly of slavery and the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans as the gravest crimes against humanity places an essential truth on record, acknowledgment alone does not resolve injustice.

If left unaddressed, he said  its effects will continue to shape opportunity, access, and development.

“For CARICOM States, this is a lived reality. Our call for reparatory justice is therefore grounded in responsibility and equity. Through the Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, we continue to advance an evolving framework rooted in accountability, development, and partnership. We also welcome the growing momentum at the international level, including the Accra Proclamation, and the strengthening of collaboration between Africa and the Caribbean. These efforts reflect a recognition that this is a shared history—and that the next chapter must be shaped through shared action,” Mr. Jacobs noted.

Minister Jacobs said CARICOM remains committed to working with the UN Forum and the wider international community to ensure that the next chapter is not written for people of African descent, but by them and with them, and with justice to their past, present, and future.

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