Newsletter 11/25 - Reparations: further progress at the United Nations

The General Debate of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly was held in New York from September 24 to September 30, 2024, during which the delegates from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago called for reparations for colonialism in its various aspects (genocide of the native people, transatlantic slave trade, slavery, imperialism and neocolonialism), with the presence of a group of Caribbean nations consolidated over the last decade.

On September 3, 2025 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk presents report A/HRC/60/70 (Promotion and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Africans and of people of African descent against excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement officers through transformative change for racial justice and equality) in which he states that reparatory justice, which must respond to the demands of affected communities through a fully participatory process, is essential to dismantling systemic racism rooted in the legacy of slavery and colonialism with actions by Member States that include formal apologies, truth-seeking and access to archives, memorialization and educational measures, restitution, reparations, medical and psychosocial support.

The General Debate of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly was held in New York from September 23 to September 29, 2025, during which delegates from Antigua and Barbuda, Central African Republic, Cuba, Ghana, Haiti, Niger, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Togo called for reparations for colonialism in its various aspects (genocide of the native people, transatlantic slave trade, slavery, imperialism and neocolonialism), with a group of African nations joining the Caribbean nations for the first time.

Colonialism Reparation welcomes that the debate on reparations continues to expand at the United Nations and hopes that also other Member States will begin to support reparations for colonialism in its various aspects (genocide of the native people, transatlantic slave trade, slavery, imperialism and neocolonialism), bearing in mind their lasting impact in the present.