Key Facts

• King Charles and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham are due to attend the Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Antigua.
• Demonstrations, a candlelight vigil and other events are planned around the summit to remember enslaved people and call for reparations.
• James Knight of Citizens for Reparatory Justice said protests were necessary after the British government and King Charles announced there would be no apology or reparations.
• Burnham wrote that the UK would offer structured dialogue with people affected by the transatlantic slave trade.
• Burnham said listening to calls for a formal apology on behalf of the British state would be part of the process and that he was open to those calls.
• The Commonwealth has 56 member countries, and reparations are not listed as a dedicated official summit event.
• Caribbean Community reparations commission chair Hilary Beckles described the meeting as the “Chogm of reparations” and said reparatory justice was a leading Caribbean concern.
• Reparations groups and organizations are expected to meet outside the main summit, while Caribbean leaders are expected to raise the issue in closed-door meetings.