Today, Sunday, March 25, 2007 marks the 200th year since the Proclamation of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Caricom Secretary General, Edward Carrington has appealed to the mass media, the Church, government ministries, agencies and schools in all Member States to join in a synchronised period of one minute of silence today at noon, in honour of those who died in the Middle Passage and in resistance to slavery.

This is in keeping with a decision taken at the Eighteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, held in St Vincent and the Grenadines on February 12-14, to commemorate this historic event with year-long national and regional activities, and in particular the observance of the synchronised period of silence.

Dr Carrington’s appeal also comes against the background of the passage of a resolution co-sponsored by Caricom, at the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2006, designating March 25, 2007, as the International Day for the Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The resolution, which was supported by an overwhelming majority of Member States of the UN, urged all Member States of the United Nations “to develop programmes to educate and inculcate future generations on the lessons, history and consequences of slavery and the slave trade,” and requested the Secretary-General of the United Nations to establish an outreach programme to commemorate the anniversary, including the holding of a Special Session of the UNGA on March 25, 2007.

We encourage readers to observe this minute of silence in honour of those who died in the Middle Passage and in resistance to slavery.