A United Nations human rights committee has strengthened the international legal case for reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and racialized chattel slavery.
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) adopted General Recommendation No. 40, calling on states to address the continuing consequences of colonialism, the trafficking and enslavement of Africans, and racialized chattel slavery.
The committee says reparatory justice should go beyond financial compensation. Recommended measures include restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, formal recognition, structural reforms and guarantees that such injustices will not be repeated.
CERD argues that the effects of slavery did not end with abolition, pointing to continuing racial discrimination, structural inequality and other consequences affecting people of African descent.
The recommendation comes months after the UN General Assembly adopted a Ghana-led resolution recognizing the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of Africans as a grave crime against humanity.
For Ghana, which has emerged as a leading voice in the global reparations movement, the latest UN recommendation provides additional momentum for its call for historical accountability and reparatory justice.
Source: DW Africa
