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The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Monday stated that countries have a legal obligation to consider comprehensive reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and the continuing harm caused by racialized chattel slavery.
In a general recommendation, the Committee said that the historical harms associated with the trafficking and enslavement of Africans continue to manifest via systemic racial discrimination and other forms of inequality. The Committee emphasized that these harms were not confined to the past, but continue to affect people of African descent through contemporary racial discrimination and structural inequalities.
According to the Committee, reparations should address both historical injustices and their continuing consequences. The Committee’s approach recognized that racial discrimination can operate through structural and institutional systems, in essence that the provision of reparations should extend beyond addressing individual instances of discrimination. They should include monetary, non-monetary and structural measures.
Pela Boker- Wilson, a human rights expert and member of CERD, has also emphasized the importance of recognizing the relationship between historical slavery and present-day racial inequality. The UN also identified that the structural discrimination affecting people of African descent has seeped into other areas including political participation, education, employment and socioeconomic conditions.
General Recommendation No. 40 builds on the Committee’s broader understanding of reparations under international law. The Committee has described reparations as part of states’ responsibilities to address racial discrimination and provide effective remedies for resulting harms. The recommendation places reparatory justice within the framework of states’ obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
The recommendation comes after the UN General Assembly in March adopted a landmark resolution recognizing the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, despite opposition from the United States and other European countries. Although the transatlantic slave trade was abolished gradually by different countries between the years of 1803 and 1867, its effects have persisted through generations, and this can be seen in the permanent erasure of ancestral identity and family lineages, leaving millions of descendants of enslaved people detached from their specific linguistic and geographic origins.
Human right organizations have agreed that the transatlantic slave trade not only distorted global economic relations by distributing unjustly accumulated wealth across societies and borders, but also created shared responsibility for its enduring effects. In order to ensure that the history, pain, and sheer brutality brought about by the transatlantic slave trade is never forgotten, modern international legal frameworks are increasingly demanding that states dismantle the Eurocentric historical narratives that have long plagued the atrocities.
For instance, the 10-Point Reparation Plan created by the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission to ensure that full justice has been served, outlines aspects such as the provision of a full formal apology, supplying adequate resources to restore cultural heritage, and comprehensive education programs to overcome structural educational deficits left as a result of colonial rule.
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In a general recommendation, the Committee said that the historical harms associated with the trafficking and enslavement of Africans continue to manifest via systemic racial discrimination and other forms of inequality. The Committee emphasized that these harms were not confined to the past, but continue to affect people of African descent through contemporary racial discrimination and structural inequalities.
According to the Committee, reparations should address both historical injustices and their continuing consequences. The Committee’s approach recognized that racial discrimination can operate through structural and institutional systems, in essence that the provision of reparations should extend beyond addressing individual instances of discrimination. They should include monetary, non-monetary and structural measures.
Pela Boker- Wilson, a human rights expert and member of CERD, has also emphasized the importance of recognizing the relationship between historical slavery and present-day racial inequality. The UN also identified that the structural discrimination affecting people of African descent has seeped into other areas including political participation, education, employment and socioeconomic conditions.
General Recommendation No. 40 builds on the Committee’s broader understanding of reparations under international law. The Committee has described reparations as part of states’ responsibilities to address racial discrimination and provide effective remedies for resulting harms. The recommendation places reparatory justice within the framework of states’ obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
The recommendation comes after the UN General Assembly in March adopted a landmark resolution recognizing the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, despite opposition from the United States and other European countries. Although the transatlantic slave trade was abolished gradually by different countries between the years of 1803 and 1867, its effects have persisted through generations, and this can be seen in the permanent erasure of ancestral identity and family lineages, leaving millions of descendants of enslaved people detached from their specific linguistic and geographic origins.
Human right organizations have agreed that the transatlantic slave trade not only distorted global economic relations by distributing unjustly accumulated wealth across societies and borders, but also created shared responsibility for its enduring effects. In order to ensure that the history, pain, and sheer brutality brought about by the transatlantic slave trade is never forgotten, modern international legal frameworks are increasingly demanding that states dismantle the Eurocentric historical narratives that have long plagued the atrocities.
For instance, the 10-Point Reparation Plan created by the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission to ensure that full justice has been served, outlines aspects such as the provision of a full formal apology, supplying adequate resources to restore cultural heritage, and comprehensive education programs to overcome structural educational deficits left as a result of colonial rule.
The post UN Committee holds states have legal duty to consider transatlantic slave trade reparations appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.