UN Committee Says Countries Must Consider Reparations for Slave Trade
The guidance says financial compensation alone is not enough and calls for restitution, memorialisation and education to address lasting harm.
- On Monday, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued guidance stating 182 countries are legally obliged to provide comprehensive reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and address enduring racial discrimination.
- Between the 15th and 19th centuries, at least 12.5 million Africans were displaced by the slave trade, which 'distorted global economic relations by distributing unjustly accumulated wealth across societies and borders,' creating shared responsibility for its effects.
- Pela Boker-Wilson, a committee expert from Liberia, called the findings a 'paradigm shift' that moves reparatory justice from historical responsibility to a present-day legal obligation under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
- The document urges 'transformative' measures including opening archives and revising public memorials, stating reparations encompass 'a wide range of measures conceived as monetary, non-monetary and structural.'
- Boker-Wilson stressed the findings carry 'significant authoritative weight' for judicial review and are expected to support reparations claims, though they remain non-binding under current international law.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Countries legally obliged to consider reparations for slave trade: UN panel
A UN committee has said countries must consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade under current international law. It says the duty stems from present obligations to address structural racial inequality, not historical legality.
States must be legally obliged to offer reparation for the damage caused by their direct or indirect involvement in transatlantic trade in African slaves, a United Nations committee said on Monday. The conclusion was presented in a new interpretation of an important international human rights treaty and states that signatory countries must work to repair the effects of slavery and its consequences.
U.N. committee says countries must consider reparations for slave trade
At least 12.5 million Africans were taken and sold between the 15th and 19th centuries in what the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called the largest forced displacement in history
UN committee says countries must consider reparations for slave trade
By Emma Farge GENEVA, Aug 31 (Reuters) - A U.N. committee said countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and take other measures to address the enduring legacy of racial discrimination it says persists tod...
The UN Committee against Racial Discrimination is calling on states to provide compensation for their participation in the African slave trade, based on a new interpretation of the 1969 International Convention.
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