The Guyana Reparations Committee is drafting legislation to allow Afro-Guyanese to secure a percentage of Guyana’s territory as compensation for slavery in the same way that Amerindians have been legally guaranteed land rights, a move Retired Rear Admiral Gary Best supports.

“I believe that unless the State acknowledges its responsibility, we’ll only be looking towards the external reparations which is financial reparations but within the country itself, I think Guyana owes its own people to allocate a portion of land both onshore and offshore reparatory justice to the people of Guyana,” Best said.

The issue was discussed at the University of Guyana’s 6th Conversation on Law and Society that was held on Monday under the theme “The Challenges of and to Reparations for People of African Decent in the 21st Century.”

Best, an Attorney-at-Law, is drafting legislation for the Committee which is part of a Caribbean Community (Caricom) Reparations Commission that continues to lobby Britain to compensate countries in the region for slavery.