How can we reckon with the complex and painful legacies of the British Empire? What would it mean to create an international truth-telling commission, and why is this conversation so urgent today?

This event explores the vision for a Peoples' International Truth-Telling Commission on the British Empire - a platform to uncover historical injustices, amplify voices silenced by colonial histories, and challenge enduring inequalities. The Commission will foster dialogue and accountability that transcends national borders, acknowledging the shared but unequal impacts of empire on the Global South and North alike.

The discussion will address why such a commission is necessary, how it can challenge the omissions and distortions of history in public discourse, and what role civil society, governments, and scholars can play in its creation. It will also examine how truth-telling initiatives globally - such as those in Australia - offer lessons for building meaningful processes of repair and reconciliation.

This is an opportunity to engage with the ideas, challenges, and potential of truth-telling as a tool for historical accountability and a pathway toward justice.

Meet our speakers and chair

Bell Ribeiro-Addy is the Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, her home constituency. Born and raised in Brixton Hill, she is a dedicated feminist, anti-racist, and trade unionist. In Parliament, she currently sits on the Home Affairs Committee and leads the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations. Before her election to Parliament, Bell served as the National Black Students' Officer for the National Union of Students and later worked as a campaigns officer for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. She was also the chief of staff to former Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott.

Lidia Thorpe is a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung mother, grandmother, and advocate for First Peoples. She is an Independent Senator for Victoria in Australia and represents the Blak Sovereign Movement. Thorpe's political career began in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, where she was elected as the Member for Northcote in 2017, becoming the first Aboriginal woman in the state's parliament. After her term, she transitioned to federal politics, becoming the First Victorian Aboriginal person to be elected to the Federal Senate.  (might be joining remotely)

Imaobong Umoren is an Associate Professor of International History at the London School of Economics where she specialises in histories of colonialism, racism, women, and political thought in the Caribbean, Britain, and United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her first trade book Empire Without End: A New History of Britain and the Caribbean is due to be published in June 2025. In 2021, it received the Eccles Institute Writer’s and Hay Festival Award.

Kofi Mawuli Klu is an independent Pan-Afrikan scholar-activist, community advocate, and educationist specializing in Pan-Afrikan community law and global citizenship education. He is the Chief Executive Commissioner of PANAFRIINDABA, a grassroots Pan-Afrikan community advocacy, research, and think tank organization. His work focuses on decoloniality, cognitive justice, and the defense of human, peoples', and Mother Earth rights. He has served as a research fellow at the University of Leeds and has contributed to various educational initiatives worldwide.

Asha Herten-Crabb is a Fellow in the LSE Department of International Relations. Her research covers international trade, health policy, and gender equality - and their intersections – with an emphasis on how legacies of imperialism in global governance shape policy making and its outcomes at the national (UK, Australia), regional (EU, MERCOSUR), and international levels (WHO, WTO).

More about this event

This event is part of the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future running from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 June 2025, with a series of events exploring the threats and opportunities of the near and distant future, and what a better world could look like. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 19 May.  

The Department of International Relations has been at LSE since 1924 when Philip Noel-Baker was appointed to a new, privately-endowed Chair of International Relations. The Department, which was set up three years later, was not only the first of its kind, but has remained a leading world centre for the development of the subject ever since.

Hashtag for this event: #LSEFestival