Global Recognition: Dr. Astrid Nonbo Jensen, a fellow at the Danish Institute of International Studies, acknowledged Shelley Moorhead’s groundbreaking work in the reparations movement, noting that his efforts “preempted some of the most salient features of the CARICOM plan”.
Congressional Acknowledgment: Shelley Moorhead was awarded a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition by U.S. Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen for his “outstanding and invaluable service to the community”.
New Leadership Role: The African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA), founded by Moorhead, was invited to join the CARICOM Reparations Commission as an Associate Member, making the USVI the first U.S. territory to align with the CRC.
1. Puerto Rico Herald – “USVI group seeking reparations from Denmark” – April 21, 2005.
2. Orlando Sentinel – “A Shared Story Not Easy to Hear” – August 21, 2005.
3. Politiken –“Danskerne bør undskylde slaveri” – August 10, 2005.
4. St. Croix Source –“Crucian Reparations Activist Invited to the U.N.” – June 14, 2005.
5. Los Angeles Times –“Caribbean Burial Ground May Shed Light on Slaves” – November 19, 2006.
6. St. Croix Source – “Gov. DeJongh Talks Reparations with Danish Human Rights Official” – February 2, 2007.
7. Jyllands-Posten –“Slavernes efterkommere ønsker forsoning” – March 16, 2007.
8. Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) – “USVI reparations movement leader on hunger strike” – August 16, 2008.
9. VI Source Network – “Governor Asks for End to Reparations Protest” February 2, 2007.
10. Politiken – “Jomfruøerne fik kold dansk skulder ved en fejl” – November 29, 2013.
11. St. Croix Source – “Activist Moorhead’s Reparations Push Gains Global Audience” – December 12, 2009.
12. Politiken – “Danmark bør se sin fortid i øjnene” – July 17, 2010
13. St. Thomas Source – “Mapp Appoints Moorhead as Secretary General of Inter-V.I. Council” – July 25, 2016.
14. Kristeligt Dagblad – “Danmark bør kompensere for sin dystre fortid som slavenation” – January 6, 2017.
15. DR.DK – “Efter Løkkes nytårstale: Sig undskyld for Danmarks slavefortid” January 3, 2017.
16. St. Thomas Source – “Danes Offer Scholarships to UVI Students, Fund Local Projects” – April 2, 2017.
17. Virgin Islands Daily News – “Senators drill Centennial Commission over expenses” – June 23, 2017.
18. Virgin Islands Daily News – “Danish team expected to arrive in V.I. today” – October 6, 2017.
19. The Journal of African American History – “The Reparations Movement in the United States Virgin Islands by Jensen, Astrid Nonbo, Volume 103, Number 1/2” – Winter/Spring 2018.
20. The Virgin Islands Consortium – “ACRRA Calls For Reparations from De Nederlandsche Bank for Slavery Ties in U.S. Virgin Islands” – February 10, 2024.
21. Politiken – “Tidligere udenrigsminister: Grønland har noget at lære af Jomfruøernes erfaringer med Danmark” – March 8, 2025.
🇻🇮 MEDIA ADVISORY / PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: October 15, 2025
Contact:
African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA)
📧 acrra.vi@gmail.com | 🌐African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) | 📱 WhatsApp: 340.277.8146
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FROM ST. CROIX TO 🇨🇭 SWITZERLAND: 🇻🇮 VIRGIN ISLANDS REPARATIONS ADVOCACY ENTERS THE SWISS PARLIAMENTARY RECORD
UBS Confronted on Historic Ties to Slavery Following Formal Petition from ACRRA President Shelley Moorhead.
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands 🇻🇮 —
In a development of historic international consequence, the 🇨🇭 Swiss National Council (Federal Parliament of Switzerland) has formally cited Shelley Moorhead, President of the African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA), in its official record during a motion questioning UBS Group AG — Switzerland’s largest bank — over its colonial and slavery-era financial entanglements.
This parliamentary motion, filed on September 30, 2025, specifically references Moorhead and ACRRA’s February 22, 2024 letter to UBS Group CEO Sergio P. Ermotti. In that letter, Moorhead, writing from the former Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands), called upon UBS to confront its historical ties to slavery, including its corporate lineage through Credit Suisse and Bank Leu, both of which financed Danish colonial operations in the Caribbean during the 18th century  .
“UBS’s historic antecedents, including Leu & Co., directly financed Danish colonial ventures in St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John — the same enslaved labor system that built European wealth while leaving our fore-parents in bondage,” Moorhead wrote in his appeal to Ermotti. “It is time for UBS to acknowledge, study, and repair its institutional relationship to slavery, as the Bank of England and De Nederlandsche Bank have already done.”
The February 2024 correspondence included citations from the Zurich State Archives (StAZH) — identifying 18th-century loan records to Danish planters and Caribbean trading companies — and referenced the University of Zurich’s 2020 historical study (Die Beteiligung der Stadt Zürich sowie der Zürcherinnen und Zürcher an Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel vom 17. bis ins 19. Jahrhundert), which established the financial links between Bank Leu and the Danish colonial plantation economy .
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SWISS PARLIAMENTARY MOTION (SEPTEMBER 30, 2025)
The Swiss National Council’s motion, docket number 25.4290, titled
“UBS’s Colonial History: Is Switzerland’s Largest Bank Ignoring Its Own Past?”,
was introduced in Bern on September 30, 2025. It reads, in part:
“The President of the African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA), Shelley Moorhead, and historian Hans Fässler have brought this to UBS’s attention.”
The motion calls upon the Swiss Federal Council to clarify whether UBS has properly disclosed its involvement in slavery-related activities, and to assess the legal and reputational risks associated with ignoring those connections — particularly under the Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinances enforced in U.S. jurisdictions like Chicago, where UBS operates.
The official parliamentary record is accessible for public verification at:
👉 http://ws-old.parlament.ch/affairs/20254290
(Select “DE” in the upper right corner to enable automatic Google translation.)
A HISTORIC FIRST FOR THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
This marks the first time in history that a Virgin Islands-based reparations organization and leader have been formally recognized in a European parliamentary proceeding concerning corporate accountability for slavery. It represents a watershed moment for the global reparative justice movement and validates ACRRA’s two-decade campaign to compel both nations and corporations to confront their historical debt to the people of the Virgin Islands.
“This is more than acknowledgment,” said Moorhead.
“It’s proof that the moral weight of our ancestors’ labor and suffering now echoes in the halls of European power. The descendants of the enslaved will no longer be ignored — not by governments, and not by banks that built their empires on stolen lives and stolen labor.”
ABOUT ACRRA
Founded in 2004 on St. Croix, the African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) is a diplomatic and advocacy organization committed to reparative justice, historical accountability, and socio-economic redress for the descendants of enslaved Africans in the Virgin Islands.
ACRRA is an Associate Member of the CARICOM Reparations Commission and has engaged governments and institutions across Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland to advance international reparations dialogue.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
• 📧 Email: acrra.vi@gmail.com
• 🌐 Facebook: ACRRA / African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance
• 🕊️ X/Twitter: @reparations4vi
• 📱 WhatsApp: 340.277.8146