The three-day conference runs from September 17 to 19 at the Wyndham Grand Sam Lord's Castle in Saint Philip under the theme, “Reparatory Justice as the Coming Enlightenment.”

Organised by the CARICOM Reparations Commission, the Government of Barbados and the CARICOM Secretariat, the conference is expected to focus heavily on moving the regional reparations agenda from advocacy toward implementation.

A major area of discussion will be the revised CARICOM Ten-Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, with participants expected to examine practical approaches to advancing the plan.

The meeting assumes added significance following a United Nations resolution adopted on March 25, 2026 concerning the trafficking and racialised chattel enslavement of Africans. CARICOM has described the conference as the first major regional reparations forum since the adoption of that resolution.

The conference will also examine developments in reparatory justice across Africa, the Caribbean and the wider diaspora, while assessing progress in the international reparations movement.

CARICOM Conference Chairman Rodney Grant has described the gathering as an important milestone for the region.

The opening ceremony is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time today, with sessions continuing Friday and Saturday.

The event will be carried through CARICOM's YouTube and Facebook platforms as well as UWI TV, giving people throughout the Caribbean an opportunity to follow the discussions.

The gathering comes more than a decade after CARICOM formally intensified its coordinated reparations campaign. The first regional conference was held in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2013, followed by a second conference in Antigua and Barbuda in 2014.

Thirteen years after that first gathering, this week's Barbados conference is expected to focus on what comes next for the Caribbean's collective pursuit of reparatory justice.