UN Committee Says Countries Must Consider Reparations for Transatlantic Slave Trade

A United Nations committee said countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and to take other measures addressing the enduring legacy of racial discrimination it says persists today.

“States Parties must implement comprehensive reparatory measures for people of African descent, covering all aspects of remedies”

Reuters

The guidance published on Monday by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said the obligations arise from a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimination, not from the legal standards that existed when the slave trade took place.

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The committee described the approach as a "paradigm shift" away from debates over historical responsibility that have often been used by governments to resist reparations claims.

The UN document said "States Parties must implement comprehensive reparatory measures for people of African descent, covering all aspects of remedies," and it may be cited in courtrooms.

Reuters reported that at least 12.5 million Africans were taken and sold between the 15th and 19th centuries in what the committee called the largest forced displacement in history.R

Committee member Pela Boker-Wilson, a Liberian human rights lawyer who helped draft the document, told Reuters that the committee was "We are calling on state parties to take concrete and meaningful action" and said the goal was to affirm the dignity of those whose suffering was denied, minimised or forgotten.R

Boker-Wilson also described the committee’s findings as "a watershed moment" in remarks to AFP, according to RFI, and said the interpretation introduces "a paradigm shift" in the framing of reparatory justice from historical responsibility to a present-day legal obligation.

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RFI said the CERD panel is composed of 18 independent rights experts and that the document was approved last week but only published on Monday.

The guidance stressed that reparatory justice combined "a wide range of measures conceived as monetary, non-monetary and structural," and RFI said the recommendation is expected to provide a powerful new tool supporting reparations claims.

RFI added that while the CERD findings are not legally-binding, Boker-Wilson stressed they carry "significant authoritative weight" and could be used by officials, courts, and to support litigation.

The UN committee said financial compensation alone is not sufficient and urged "transformative" measures including opening archives, revising public memorials and establishing independent truth commissions.

“transformative" measures including opening archives, revising public memorials and establishing independent truth commissions”

Reuters

Reuters reported that the committee argued countries remain responsible under current international obligations to tackle continuing effects even if slavery and the slave trade were illegal under the laws of the day.R

RFI said the document lists reparatory justice as combining monetary, non-monetary and structural measures and pointed to an educational obligation "to investigate and disclose the full truth about transatlantic chattel slavery."

The committee’s interpretation was presented after the UN General Assembly in March adopted a resolution recognising the transatlantic slave trade as "the gravest crime against humanity," despite opposition from the United States and some European countries.

RFI said Boker-Wilson expected the United States and other countries to "welcome" the new findings, noting that the last review of US adherence to the convention on discrimination, in 2022, had found issues with racial profiling and disparities in the criminal justice system.