UN Panel Calls for Reparations for Transatlantic Slave Trade

By Staff, Agencies

A UN committee on racial discrimination has said countries involved directly or indirectly in the transatlantic slave trade have a present-day legal obligation to provide broad reparations for the harm caused.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination made the recommendation in a document published Monday, stating that reparations for people of African descent should include monetary, non-monetary and structural measures.

The 18-member panel said such measures could include compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, memorials, formal apologies and guarantees against the recurrence of abuses. It also called on states to investigate and disclose the full history of race-based slavery.

Committee member Pela Boker-Wilson described the recommendation as a "paradigm shift," arguing that reparations should no longer be viewed solely as a historical responsibility but as a present-day legal obligation linked to continuing racial discrimination.

The recommendations are not legally binding but could guide governments, courts and future legal cases.

Calls for reparations have intensified across Africa and the Caribbean. In March, the UN General Assembly adopted a Ghana-led resolution describing the trafficking and racialized enslavement of Africans as "the gravest crime against humanity" and calling for reparatory justice. The resolution received 123 votes in favor.