Geneva, Oct 2, (dpa/GNA) – Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, are calling for reparations to be paid to people and their descendants, who were victims of the slave trade from Africa.
Reparations are necessary, they write in their report to the UN Human Rights Council, published on Wednesday, and should include “compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition,” taking into account the respective historical and country-specific context.
The Working Group on People of African Descent has been in existence since 2002. It holds hearings, most recently in December 2024 and April 2025, and formulates recommendations from those meetings.
It mentions, for example, US Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who spoke at a hearing about the painful and dangerous consequences of white supremacy. The congresswoman cited worrying trends in the United States, aimed at reversing progress in the fight against systemic racism.
Human rights lawyer Roger Wareham, accused the US of ignoring the issue. “He underscored that reparations must address ongoing systemic racism, not just historical chattel enslavement,” the report states.
The five members of the working group come from Bangladesh, Guyana, Uganda, Hungary and Spain.
Reparations “must be comprehensive, as the legacies of slavery, the trade in enslaved persons, including the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and colonialism, continue to affect all aspects of the lives of people of African descent,” the authors argued.
The recommendations go on to say that “States that were involved in or benefited from enslavement, the trade in enslaved persons, including the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, and colonialism and their successors, should be considered as the main responsible actors.”
GNA