April 21, 59 ADM* (2024)

Members of the UN Permanent Forum

on People of African Descent

Members of the CARICOM

Reparations Commission

Justice Blaise Tchikaya, Chair

AU Commission For International Law

Analysis by the Republic of New Afrika of Legal Issues Requiring an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice

Michael McEachrane, Rapporteur for the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) stated in the Preliminary Conclusion and Recommendations of the Forum’s 3rd Session,

“The Permanent Forum calls on all relevant stakeholders to continue to advance various methods in the pursuit of reparatory justice. This can be accomplished through the utilization of UN tribunals on reparations to document and resolve specific claims,(see endnote1) the return of artifacts and assets, the recognition of the right of return and diaspora citizenship, (see endnote 2) and the reform of laws, policies, structures systems, practices, as well as the creation of a Global Reparations Fund, the Presentment model, (see endnote 4) advocacy aimed at non-governmental actors, and the advancement of claims before the International Court of Justice.” [emphasis added]

Earlier during the 3rd session, the new PFPAD President Dr. June Soomer told TAG24 NEWS that she will not take independent action on the petition request. The matter must first be discussed among all of the forum members, she said, and a decision will not be reached until all legal considerations are taken into account.

Such legal considerations, however, is exactly what, civil society was expecting to conclude at the 3rd session since former President Epsy Campbell-Barr stated in a July 31 letter to Siphiwe Baleka, that “As president of this space, I have requested the incorporation of this item in the agenda of the next meeting, to proceed to analyze it jointly. I also informed the High Commissioner of the United Nations of this. . . .” [emphasis added] This followed her statement in an interview with New Afrikan youth leader DaQuan Lawrence that,

“I’m going to sign the petition first because I know that this is the kind of thing that we have to do. . . . The role of civil society is enormous. We as the Permanent Forum, without civil society, we are nothing. Almost nothing. Because we have an isolated voice inside the UN. Because they gave us a little money. They gave us a big mandate without all the tools that we need to achieve all the goals that they gave us but that’s why I understand that the petition of Siphiwe Baleka is one of those things that we need because we need the International Court of Justice to take our own reality as a reality to deny rights of generations…” [emphasis added]

Thus it has been 501 days since I invoked the Forum’s mandate to REQUEST AN ADVISORY OPINION FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ON NEW AFRIKAN AND AFRO DESCENDANT STATUS AS PRISONERS OF WAR UNDER THE GENEVA CONVENTION AND THEIR RIGHT TO CONDUCT PLEBISCITES FOR SELF DETERMINATION.

It has been 298 days since President Barr stated she would sign the Request and 274 days since she announced that analyzing the request “jointly” would be an agenda item at the just concluded 3rd session of the Forum. But there still has been no joint analysis of the legal considerations. Perhaps this is why Fourm Secretary Niraj Dawadi, immediately following the closing session, felt it necessary to approach me to tell me that the Forum believes requesting an advisory opinion from the ICJ is very important but that due to shortage of resources and time, the members have not had proper opportunity to discuss it yet have concluded that because of its importance, the Request must have broad support. More interesting, however, was the admission that the Forum is concerned that if they exercise their mandate as I have suggested, and the Forum goes directly to the ICJ, that it will, according to Mr. Dawadi, “open the flood gates to petitions.” The concern is that this would set a precedent and every group will then expect the forum to act on their petition. It should be noted this was the very issue that both the League of Nations and the United Nations faced at their establishment - the question of receiving petitions from non-state actors. It was also the contentious subject at the Expert Side Session on Reparatory Justice held on April 17, 2024 in Geneva - whether or not Afro Descendant who are “stateless” will be accorded the same status within the UN as states and how. Towards that end, Dr. Barryl Biekman reminds us that,

“In my conversation with some of the delegates I have noticed an interest to learn more about the UN decision making processes and as far it concerns the formal adoption into a Resolution for the Second Decade. . . . Take note of the important role of the HRC (Human Rights Council) as the HR mechanism, the UN Authority that has the last word in the sense of the responsibility regarding the content of the Declaration to be adopted in a Resolution by the United Nation General assembly. Within this decision making process other HR mechanisms such as the WGPAD (working group of Experts on People of African Descent); The PFPAD; the Eminent Persons for the implementation of The DDPA has an important advisory voice. Important is also the Role of Civil Society Non State Actors with consultative ECOSOCC status. They have the right, asked and unasked, to deliver input during the HRC Sessions. In the SAME LEVEL as the PFPAD.” [emphasis added]

Meanwhile, The Accra Proclamation on Reparations calls for the formation of a Legal Reference Group to provide “legal advice on the question of reparations, including best practice on the law, practice and litigation of the reparation’s agenda.” It also calls for the Amplification of marginalized voices in the reparatory justice movement and Increased role for the United Nations in the Exploration of legal and judicial options for reparations.

The Republic of New Afrika (RNA) has been both the leading and most marginalized voice in advancing the legal reparations claims. On June 25, 1973, RNA President Imari Abubakari Obadele and Attorney Gaidi Obadele filed in the U.S. District Court For the Southern District of Mississippi, The Article Three Briefs Establishing the Legal Case for the Existence of the Black Nation The Republic of New Africa in North America. To this day it remains the most advanced legal analysis of the New Afrikan and Afro Descendant legal considerations. On November 21, 2010 the New Afrikan Military Science Institute MSI 2-2 Report reviewed, updated and restated the legal considerations which the PG-RNA Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted to Justice Blaise Tchikaya, Chair AU Commission For International Law on February 21, 2024.

The PG-RNA is, therefore, in a unique position as an unrecognized sovereign government desiring access to the International Court of Justice for adjudication of reparations claims for war crimes and damages. It is for this reason that entities such as the African Union, CARICOM and the Forum, can and should recognize the PG-RNA and facilitate its access to the ICJ as stated in the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA). They can, as Ethiopia and Liberia did in the case of Ethiopia v. South Africa; Liberia v. South Africa, initiate advisory proceedings on behalf of the people living in those dependent territories.

As stated in Part Three: The Existence of the New African Government As Distinct From the State in the Article Three Briefs:

“It is not uncommon for lawful governments to exist before such governments partake of full sovereignty. . . . The first precedent is, of course, the Mayflower Compact, which created the law and the government for Plymouth Colony. Drawn on shipboard on 11 November 1620, before the Pilgrims either had set foot on the land or had any title to it whatsoever, in other words, before they had sovereignty over any land - the Compact created the basic law of the Colony, and remained the basic law of the Colony for years, and also organized the men who signed the Compact into a Government. . . Conversely it is clearly manifest, keeping in mind the recent history of Europe [note: and I might also add the current situation in Haiti] that a state can exist without a government. . . . The fact is the United States has failed in a century of war [1868 to 1968] and other political action to extinguish the African nation in America even though, as in [Supreme Court] Mr. Justice Johnshon’s simile, we have from time to time been like the ‘Israelites while inhabiting the desert’ - ‘though without land they can call theirs in the sense of propriety their right of personal self government has never been taken from them, and such a form of government may exist though the land occupied be in fact that of another.’ Government may, then, be defined as a group or persons organized under law to lead the political life of the nation. . . . Apart from any consideration of the character of the New Afrikan State, the Government of the Republic of New Africa was duly created and enjoys a real sovereignty over citizens and land - though the land sovereignty may be said to be coincident with that of the United States. The Government of the Republic of New Africa can and has passed laws defining and protecting the rights of citizens and others who come within New African jurisdiction. . . . We submit that the citizens of the Republic of New Africa and the members of the Republic's Government do not owe a common allegiance with citizens of the United States or members of the United States government, and are, therefore, alien to the United States: an aggregate of aliens composing a State must be a foreign State; each individual being foreign, the whole must be foreign. An aggregate of aliens composing a Government must be a foreign government.” [emphasis added]

In the United States government’s response to the Article Three Briefs, it stated,

“Every element of the limits of Sec. (b)(2) clearly exist, with the exception of Obadele showing that he is a person of foreign nationality. That question, however, is a matter of law and requires a decision upon the issue of whether black folks now within the United States have ever been converted, in accordance with settled principles of universally established law, into United States citizens, and divested altogether of their original foreign African nationality”. [emphasis added]

As a foreign government once recognized by the Lincoln Administration, we have not been able to have our claims against the United States government heard and the question of our status as either foreign nationals of African origin or citizens of the United States, answered. It is for this reason that I, as founder and President of the Balanta B’urassa History and Genealogy Society in America, a New Afrikan civil society organization, submitted A MANDATE FROM THE AFRO DESCENDANT PEOPLE ISSUED TO THE PERMANENT FORUM ON PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT TO REQUEST AN ADVISORY OPINION FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ON THEIR STATUS AS PRISONERS OF WAR UNDER THE GENEVA CONVENTION at the first session of the Forum.

Therefore, in the spirit of Ubuntu and goodwill, I attach both the Article Three Briefs and the PGRNA#10/2/19/58 BRIEF FOR THE AU LEGAL REFERENCE GROUP ON REPARATIONS containing A Matter of Law, the excerpt from the New Afrikan Military Science Institute MSI 2-2 Report. Together, they provides a complete analysis of the legal considerations that can only be answered using universally accepted principles of law at the International Court of Justice, as attested by both the Provisional government of the Republic of New Afrika and the United States government itself.

Reparations by any means necessary,

Siphiwe Baleka

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Cc: H.E. Youssouf Mondoha Assoumani Chairman AU PRC; Dr. Namira Negm Legal Council AU Legal Team; William Carew Head Of Secretariat, AU ECOSOCC; The AU Citizens and Diaspora Organizations Directorate (CIDO); Barbara Reynolds, Chair Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD); Dr. Hilary Brown, Programme Manager Culture and Community Development, CARICOM Secretariat; Accra Reparations Conference Secretariat; Dr. Barry Biekman, AUADS High Council

ENDNOTES: