Caribbean nations draft action plan to push UK to redress reparations over slavery

An emancipation statue in Bridgetown, Barbados. Leaders told the conference that reparations needed to be realistic and set over decades. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Caribbean nations are drawing up a multi-pronged “action plan” with legal options to push the UK into negotiating a decades-long slavery reparations deal, officials at a reparations conference have said.

Leaders in the region are hoping the UK would agree to targeted and constructive negotiation talks at upcoming Commonwealth and UN summits, but they are ready to take the matter to international courts if Britain continues to resist diplomatic options.