Baku to host international conference on Belgium’s colonialism
Baku, August 20, AZERTAC
An international conference titled “Belgium’s Colonial Injustice and the 101-Year Path to Reparations” will be held in Azerbaijan on August 21. The event is organized by the Baku Initiative Group.
The conference will bring together officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi – former Belgian colonies that continue to experience the impacts of neocolonialism – as well as representatives from Morocco, South Africa, and the UN.
The participants will also include the Ombudsman of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), members of the Congolese Parliament, the Rwandan Ambassador and diplomats to Türkiye, UN experts, specialists in international law, researchers, human rights defenders, and experts on historical justice and reparations.
The conference will discuss efforts to place the issue of Belgium’s official apology and compensation for crimes committed against the peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi during the colonial era on the UN agenda, including that of the Human Rights Council. Discussions will also cover the development of an international enforcement mechanism to oversee Belgium’s reparations and restitution obligations in line with the principles enshrined in UN General Assembly Resolution 60/147.
The event will also focus on ensuring full and unhindered access to Belgium’s colonial archives, involving experts from former colonial territories in relevant processes alongside international experts, and returning human remains and other historical materials to their countries of origin.
UN General Assembly Resolution 60/147 sets out five forms of the right to legal protection and reparation for victims: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction (moral recognition and formal apology), and guarantees of non-repetition. Belgium has not yet fulfilled these obligations and has not issued an official state apology for crimes committed in the DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi during the colonial period.
Officials have limited themselves to expressing “deep regret,” which does not create a legal obligation.
Although 84,000 cultural heritage artifacts have been inventoried, the actual repatriation process has been delayed by Belgium for decades. Inventory data remains inaccessible to the public, and bilateral restitution agreements have not yet been signed. Experts from the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi have not yet been granted full access to Belgian colonial-era archives and documents. They assess the situation as Belgium’s refusal to examine its historical responsibility transparently.
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