THE Guyana Reparations Committee (GRC) is proposing what it terms “African Ancestral Rights Bill†to protect and recognise the rights of Afro-Guyanese.
The body is claiming 15,000 square miles of the country, a figure which its representative Eric Phillips told the land Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Thursday, matches 18 per cent of the country’s landmass.
Phillips said the body is seeking justice from the State of Guyana, and according to him, as a member of a CARICOM reparations group; reparations are being sought from the British and Dutch.
He said in the proposed bill, there would be financial architecture to allow the 15,000 square miles to be properly developed, since according to him, the precedence has already been set as he made reference to the 2006 Amerindian Act.
He said reparations have two components: the physical and financial, as well as the psychological.
Phillips said the reason the group is asking for land is, “that land is wealth, land is also a method of generational transfer of wealthâ€. He said it is the only secure and irrevocable method of generational wealth creation.
He informed the commission that in 2000, a study was done, and an area of 16,000 square miles of unoccupied land, which qualifies as State land was found and is being sought by the GRC.
The body is claiming 15,000 square miles of the country, a figure which its representative Eric Phillips told the land Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Thursday, matches 18 per cent of the country’s landmass.
Phillips said the body is seeking justice from the State of Guyana, and according to him, as a member of a CARICOM reparations group; reparations are being sought from the British and Dutch.
He said in the proposed bill, there would be financial architecture to allow the 15,000 square miles to be properly developed, since according to him, the precedence has already been set as he made reference to the 2006 Amerindian Act.
He said reparations have two components: the physical and financial, as well as the psychological.
Phillips said the reason the group is asking for land is, “that land is wealth, land is also a method of generational transfer of wealthâ€. He said it is the only secure and irrevocable method of generational wealth creation.
He informed the commission that in 2000, a study was done, and an area of 16,000 square miles of unoccupied land, which qualifies as State land was found and is being sought by the GRC.