It is necessary that the nations that have given rise to this situation condemn colonialism acknowledging their behaviour as a crime, reconcile with their past, apologize and compensate the colonized countries.
This decision will help create a climate of friendship and cooperation among peoples and create an extremely positive precedent in international relations, promoting the supremacy of the "force of law" on the "law of force".
Newsletter 11/22 - Further progress on restitutions
On February 17 and 18, 2022 the Sixth European Union - African Union Summit took place, during which the Heads of State and Government of the Member States promised to [...] encourage mutual undertaking for the restitution of cultural assets and promote access to and protection of cultural heritage [...] and on the sidelines of the meeting the Prime Minister of Belgium handed over to the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo the inventory of about 84,000 objects of Congolese origin currently in the Royal Museum of Central Africa of Tervuren.
On February 21, 2022, on the occasion of the restitution of two "Benin Bronzes", the President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari [...] has appealed to nations, institutions and bodies, both private and public, to return Nigeria’s artefacts in their possession [...].
On June 30, 2022, the House of Representatives of Belgium approved the Law of July 3, 2022 which recognizes the alienable character of assets linked to the colonial past of the Belgian State and establishes a legal framework for their restitution and return, thus paving the way for the definitive restitution of all the treasures looted during the colonial period.
On July 1, 2022 the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Culture of Germany and Nigeria signed the Joint Declaration on the return of the "Benin Bronzes" and bilateral museum cooperation, thus paving the way for the definitive restitution of the 1,130 "Benin Bronzes" held by German museums and public institutions and the demands for the definitive restitution of all the treasures looted during the colonial period.
On July 8, 2022 the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa repatriated the remains of one hundred and thirteen Moriori and Māori ancestors, returned by the Natural History Museum of London, and on October 3, 2022 the remains of sixty-four Māori and Moriori ancestors, returned by the Natural History Museum of Vienna.
On October 11, 2022 the Smithsonian Institution of Washington returned twenty-nine "Benin Bronzes" to Nigeria, under the new Policy on Ethical Returns announced this spring.
With what is happening even France and the United Kingdom, which so far are resist trying to return as little as possible, could be forced to give in by growing national and international pressures.
Colonialism Reparation asks the repatriation of the remains and the definitive restitution of the treasures looted by former colonizers (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, etc.) as a first step in the direction of the Reparation of the damages of colonialism, stopping to hinder an inevitable passage of human evolution.
