Why Reparations?

• To repair the damage and lingering effects of plantation slavery.
• To restore us to a state of independence and self-determination.
• To govern ourselves according to our wishes and desires.
• To attain true freedom, justice and equality on some of this earth that we can call our own.

Work on Behalf of Afrodescendants in the United Nations

The Honorable Silis Muhammad has presented many interventions, both oral and written, before the United Nations (UN) on behalf of Afrodescendants (descendants of enslaved Africans in the Americas Region and the Slavery Diaspora). He also was instrumental in getting the UN to host Regional Seminars for Afrodescendants, some of the most notable were in Santiago, Chile 2000, La Ceiba, Honduras 2002 and Chincha, Peru. The Honorable Silis Muhammad’s work also includes educating Blacks/African-Americans about our global identity, Afrodescendant, and connecting Us to the 250 million Afrodescendants throughout the Slavery Diaspora.

1994
Petition for Reparations to the UN under 1503 Procedure
Mr. Muhammad delivered a 1503 communication to the UN Working Group on Communications on behalf of African-Americans.

1997
Written Statement to the UN
Mr. Muhammad recommended opening a forum so that African-American Human Rights grievances, that formed the basis of a petition submitted, can be expressed systematically, as well as officially recorded, evaluated, and remedied.

1998
Written and Oral Statements
Mr. Muhammad urged the Commission on Human Rights to assist African-Americans in their efforts to recover from official U.S. policies of enslavement, apartheid, and forced assimilation. Mr. Muhammad prayed that the Human Rights of African-Americans be recaptured politically and amicably, rights to self-determination rectified, and the damages sustained be awarded in great measure in order to accomplish the cathartic cleansing mentally, emotionally, and physically of 400 years of long-suffering. Mr. Muhammad prayed that the U.S. Government not be given the tacit approval of the UN to subvert the opening of a forum wherein African-American grievances can be expressed systematically, and officially recorded, evaluated and remedied.

1999
Written and Oral Statements
Mr. Muhammad requested recognition of the African-American choice of Human Rights and inalienable rights. He requested the crime of plantation slavery, and its lingering effects, be rectified–which was, and is still, a crime against African-Americans and against humanity. Mr. Muhammad asked the U.N. to establish a forum for the purpose of restoring African-American Human Rights, their political being, and their status as a people. Mr. Muhammad urged recommendation that the Sub-Commission pass a resolution recognizing slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity. He urged the writing of a working paper as a way to begin analyzing African-American’s situation. Mr. Muhammad urged African-American inclusion in the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, or a new declaration be written for African-Americans. Mr. Muhammad asked the International Labor Organization to look into America’s privately owned prisons.

2000
Written and Oral Statements
Mr. Muhammad asked that the U.S. pay reparations to the so-called African-Americans, since the U.S. cannot restore the ‘mother tongue’ of African-Americans if ever it wanted to. Mr. Muhammad recommended the U.S. be held liable, at the least, for the last 51 years, plus the additional years which are needed to resolve this issue. He asked that the UN place a reparation sanction upon America if the identity and language of minorities and Peoples are to be preserved. Mr. Muhammad asked that a precise dollar amount be given at a future date, if warranted, and that he stated that he would ask for the release of a number of African-American Human Rights victims who have been unjustly incarcerated in federal and state penitentiaries. Finally, Mr. Muhammad asked the UN to impose a sanction on the U.S. in the form of exemption from all taxation upon our people for as long as this issue is in the hands of the UN.

2000
World Conference Against Racism Written and Oral Statements
Mr. Muhammad recommended that the World Conference Against Racism declare a decade to consider the issues of slave descendants, including whether “LOST FOUND Peoples” is the term that best identifies slave descendants.

2001
Written and Oral Statements
Mr. Muhammad urged UN intervention to protect and assist African-American leaders within a forum as they seek to determine the damage they have sustained and the means of reparation needed in order to bring them back to life as a People. Mr. Muhammad prayed for reparations for the damage suffered during slavery, and asked the Commission on Human Rights to hear the African-American demand for the right to choose to reconstitute, and reconstruct lost ties, since no international instruments, arbitrations, mechanisms or laws requiring the recognition of minorities that can restrain ethnic conflict during 2001. Attorney Harriet Abu Bakr, Mr. Muhammad’s wife, asked the Working Group on Minorities to cause minority protection to develop in accord with the African-American needs for resurrection.

Honduras 2002
Regional Seminar for Afrodescendants Oral Statement
Mr. Muhammad put forth the name Lost Found Peoples as a name in order to gain Human Rights protection for slave descendants, but the name Afrodescendants was agreed upon by unanimous consent.

2002
Written and Oral Statements
On behalf of African-Americans, Mr. Muhammad asked the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights to acknowledge the decision that African-Americans be recognized as Afrodescendant Minorities. Mr. Muhammad also recommended that the Commission on Human Rights pass a resolution requesting that the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights place African-Americans on its agenda, alongside Indigenous Peoples and Minorities. Mr. Muhammad also put forth a prayer for official recognition of a self-chosen collective identity and reparations for African-Americans.