A major European publication, Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), has now placed the U.S. Virgin Islands directly within the international legal and geopolitical conversation surrounding Greenland, colonialism, self-determination, and international law.
The article is published in Swedish and is behind a paywall, but its significance should not be overlooked. The author examines the legal implications of Denmark’s colonial history and specifically references the work of the African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) and its challenge concerning the 1916–1917 transfer of the Danish West Indies to the United States.
The article discusses ACRRA’s position that the people of the Virgin Islands were excluded from decisions determining their political future and were denied an opportunity to exercise meaningful self-determination. It also addresses claims involving the legacy of discriminatory colonial laws, racial injustice, human rights obligations, reparations, and the right of Virgin Islanders to determine their future political status.
Most importantly, the article places these issues within a broader international legal discussion rather than treating them simply as matters confined to the past.
What This Means for the U.S. Virgin Islands
International Validation
The significance of this coverage is that the argument is no longer being made only within the Virgin Islands. European scholars and publications are examining these questions within the framework of international law, colonial responsibility, and self-determination.
Greater International Exposure
The Virgin Islands is now entering a wider European conversation alongside Greenland—one of the most consequential contemporary debates concerning Denmark, sovereignty, colonial history, and international law.
Present-Day Relevance
The 1916–1917 transfer cannot be understood solely as a historical event when its political and legal consequences continue to shape the lives and status of Virgin Islanders today. Questions surrounding representation, citizenship, political rights, equality, and self-determination remain relevant.
Strategic Leverage
Denmark’s historical relationship with both Greenland and the Virgin Islands raises important questions of consistency. Principles invoked when discussing Greenland’s political future must also withstand examination when applied to Denmark’s former Caribbean territories.
That contradiction is increasingly visible beyond our shores.
This Is the Work
Serious advocacy requires more than slogans.
It requires documentation, legal strategy, historical research, diplomacy, persistence, and the willingness to place the case of the Virgin Islands before audiences and institutions that have too often overlooked our history.
The record is being documented.
The arguments are being presented.
International scholars are taking notice.
The conversation is expanding.
And the world is beginning to examine questions Virgin Islanders have raised for generations.
Why Leadership Matters
The people of the U.S. Virgin Islands deserve representation capable of operating at the highest levels of law, diplomacy, and public policy.
We need leadership prepared to defend Virgin Islands interests in Washington and beyond; leadership capable of transforming our history into strategy, our legal rights into leverage, and international attention into meaningful opportunities for our people.
This is about more than revisiting the past. It is about determining what the unresolved consequences of that past mean for our political, economic, and democratic future.
I am prepared to continue that work.
The world is paying attention.
The question before us is whether the Virgin Islands will seize this moment and insist on having a decisive voice in its own future.
Shelley Moorhead
Candidate for Delegate to Congress
President, African-Caribbean Reparations & Resettlement Alliance
Original article: Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), Folkrättsforskare: Grönland har rätt till självständighet
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