Belgian Ruling a Landmark Win for Reparations Movement

On December 2, the Brussels Court of Appeal found the Belgian government guilty of crimes against humanity in Congo during Belgian colonial rule and ordered it to pay compensation as a form of reparation. This landmark win for the reparations movement was achieved thanks to the tireless struggle for justice by five women of mixed African and Belgian descent, Marie-Josée Loshi, Noëlle Verbeken, Léa Tavares Mujinga, Simone Ngalula, and Monique Bintu Bingi, together with associations located in Belgium and Africa’s Great Lakes region. The women, now in their 70s, were born between 1948 and 1952 in Congo, which was colonized by Belgium from 1908 to 1960. They collectively sued the Belgian government for forcibly abducting them as children. The court found that under Belgium’s colonial rule in the Great Lakes region, the systematic racial segregation of so-called Métis (“mixed-race”) children was inhumane and an act of persecution.  The practice deprived Métis children any contact to their families, their roots, and their identity. Following the end of colonization, they were abandoned by the Belgian state.  In 2019, then-Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel issued an official apology and Belgium’s federal parliament adopted the “Métis Resolution,” recognizing that Métis children had been victims...