The aim of the November 2008 conference was to produce a group of Academic Experts and Experts by Experience who are willing to work together to formulate a framework for reparations that would be adopted by influential international organisations such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund. The Conference organiser, Fernne Brennan, explained: “Current trade practices are inherently and institutionally racist and are designed and manipulated in a fashion that continues to leave large parts of the world impoverished and effectively enslaved...We are looking to the past to understand the current and continuing legacy of the slave trade in order to create a new internationally-recognised framework that will guarantee access for families across the world to food, education and healthcare. But one of the keys to achieving that is to look closely at trade.”