UK reparations conference held at Friends House
A national conference on reparations for the enslavement of African peoples, held at Quaker central offices in London on Saturday, has called for a parliamentary inquiry into truth and reparatory justice.
The 2026 UK Reparations Conference, “From Resolution to Repair", was run by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Afrikan Reparations.
It will be followed by a Quaker conference, “Truth and Repair: Our Quaker Journey Towards Justice", this Friday.
The concluding statement of Saturday's conference calls on the APPG to take all necessary steps to establish an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth and Reparatory Justice.
Speakers included Ghana's Foreign Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, who chairs the APPG. Diane Abbott MP, Dawn Butler MP and Richard Reddie, director of justice and inclusion at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland also spoke.
Professor Verene Shepherd, vice-chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, told the closing plenary that racial injustice cannot be fully addressed without repairing the harms of colonialism and enslavement.
Esther Xosei of Stop the Maangamizi said “every stage of the reparations process must itself be reparatory".
Ovaherero genocide activist Florence Mbahupa Handura said affected communities must have a direct role in decisions about truth, justice and reparations.
The conference followed a year of international moves, including a UN General Assembly resolution in March and an African Union and CARICOM plan in June.
Faith institutions were a central theme, with one session asking what churches owe for their historic links to enslavement.
Quakers agreed in 2022 to consider how to make meaningful reparation for their own part in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans and colonialism. Hosting this conference is part of that work.
Two Quaker meetings have issued formal apologies since then. In 2025, Lancashire Quakers acknowledged that members of Lancaster Monthly Meeting trafficked more than 3,600 African people.
In July this year, Bristol Area Quaker Meeting apologised after research found that Bristol Quakers funded more than 70 Bristol voyages that trafficked enslaved Africans.
Marghuerita Remi-Judah, co-clerk of the Quakers in Britain Reparation Working Group, joined the conference welcome and spoke at the launch of the Global Reparations Hub.