UN Says Reparatory Justice Is Essential to Confront Slavery’s Legacy

The trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialised chattel slavery may belong to an earlier historical period, yet the inequalities they created remain deeply embedded in modern societies, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has said. In its new General Recommendation 40, the Committee argues that anti-Black racism was built to justify enslavement and continued after abolition through laws, policies and institutions that still influence education, employment, health, wealth, housing and environmental safety. States must confront these living consequences through reparatory justice, since racial discrimination cannot be fully eliminated while its historical foundations remain unaddressed.

Stolen labour created inequalities that crossed generations

Centuries of unpaid and stolen labour generated enormous wealth for individuals, businesses, institutions and States, allowing economic advantages to grow across generations while people of African descent faced exclusion, dispossession and restricted opportunities. The Committee connects this history with present racial wealth gaps, unequal health outcomes, economic barriers, stereotyping and racialised violence, noting that the psychological, physical and financial damage caused by enslavement has been reinforced by later policies rooted in anti-Black racism. The passage of time does not prevent governments from recognising these injustices or taking action, since their present obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination require them to remove ongoing discrimination and structural inequality.

Reparations must extend far beyond financial payments

General Recommendation 40 describes reparatory justice as a broad process that can include restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, public acknowledgement, guarantees against repetition and deep institutional reform. The Committee said refusing effective reparatory justice can itself become a distinct form of racial discrimination under Article 2 of the Convention. Apologies and acknowledgements remain meaningful only when supported by practical measures, such as changing discriminatory laws, improving access to services, correcting unequal policies and reforming institutions that continue to preserve racial hierarchies. Governments were encouraged to establish time-bound national action plans with clear responsibilities, measurable commitments and meaningful oversight from people of African descent and affected communities.

The guidance also places responsibility on private and non-State institutions that participated in, enabled or profited from enslavement and colonial practices, including religious organisations, universities, businesses, banks, insurers and other financial bodies. States should require these actors to acknowledge their historical involvement, open archives that could reveal the scale of their participation and contribute to reparatory measures in proportion to the benefits they received. Such action could help communities trace lost histories, understand how modern fortunes and institutions were built, and develop responses grounded in evidence rather than symbolic gestures alone.

Affected communities must shape every stage of repair

People of African descent must have full and effective participation in designing, implementing and evaluating reparatory programmes, the Committee said, because decisions made without affected communities risk reproducing the same patterns of exclusion they are meant to correct. Reparations should dismantle race-based systems of domination across public institutions, economic structures and social life, rather than offering isolated programmes that leave the foundations of inequality untouched.

Education and memorialisation form another central part of this work. Schools should teach the history of the trafficking in enslaved Africans, racialised chattel slavery and colonialism accurately while explaining how their consequences continue to shape everyday life. Public memorials, museums and shared spaces should recognise the atrocities committed as well as the resilience, achievements and contributions of people of African descent. Confronting misinformation and ideologies of racial superiority can help societies understand that reparatory justice is not simply about correcting the distant past; it is about changing present conditions and preventing racial injustice from being carried into another generation.