UN Tells Nations to Weigh Slavery Reparations

A United Nations committee said Monday that countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and to take other steps to address what it calls the enduring legacy of racial discrimination.

The guidance came from the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, known as CERD, which said the obligation flows from a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimination — not from the legal standards that existed when the slave trade took place.

The committee called that approach a "paradigm shift" away from arguments over historical responsibility that governments have long used to fend off reparations claims.

What the Guidance Says

"States parties must implement comprehensive reparatory measures for people of African descent, covering all aspects of remedies," the document says, according to The Guardian and the Jerusalem Post. Both outlets note the text may be cited in courtrooms.

The committee said at least 12.5 million Africans were taken and sold between the 15th and 19th centuries, calling it the largest forced displacement in history.

Some states have tried to defeat reparations suits by arguing no international law banned the slave trade at the time — the so-called intertemporality principle. The UN document rejects that as a shield: "Irrespective of the legal characterisation of the original historical acts, states parties remain bound by their present obligations under the convention to address structural inequalities."

Money alone is not enough, the guidance adds, urging "transformative" measures including opening archives, revising public memorials and setting up independent truth commissions.