Summary
Across the world, people are still suffering the long-lasting effects of slavery and colonialism and struggling to get the reparations they deserve from governments and private actors that perpetrated and profited from these historical injustices.
In this explainer, we break down what reparations for these historical wrongs are, the long-lasting effects of slavery and colonialism, and why this issue is still relevant.
What are reparations for colonialism and slavery?
Most often, the word reparation is used in relation to money. It’s given as an acknowledgement of wrongful/unlawful conduct and to repair the harm caused by or as a result of this conduct.
Under international law, victims of crimes under international law and human rights violations have a right to reparations. The word reparations refers to measures to redress violations of human rights by providing a range of material and symbolic remedies to victims or their families as well as affected communities.
Reparations must be adequate, effective, prompt, and should be proportional to the gravity of the violations and the harm suffered.
What kind of reparations are there?
Reparations can take several forms:
- Compensation, where a state would give money to those affected as a way to compensate for damage, harm or losses suffered.
- Rehabilitation, which can include medical and psychological care as well as legal and social services.
- Restitution, which involves restoring victims to the position they would have been in had the harm not occurred.
- Satisfaction, which include effective measures aimed at the cessation of continuing violations; verification of the facts and full and public disclosure of the truth to the extent that such disclosure does not cause further harm or threaten the safety and interests of the victim; or a public apology.
- Guarantee of non-repetition, which include measures aimed at preventing harm and human rights violations in the future by addressing the root causes.
Case study: The Metis Children from Belgium’s colonial rule
For others, education can take the form or a reparation as seen in the case of Jacqui Goegebeur.
Jacqui was one of thousands of ‘Métis’ children — those of mixed European and African heritage — systematically abducted from their mothers during Belgium’s colonial rule in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo 70 years ago. When Jacqui was three years old, she was abducted and sent to live in Belgium with strangers. Her family was ripped apart, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering that’s still felt today. Now, Jacqui is calling for reparations, but in different ways.
“For me, I want to see funded studies to help us understand our past.”
Why do we need reparations for slavery and colonialism given that they happened so long ago?
Slavery, the slave trade and colonialism are not only harms of the past. For racialised people, including Indigenous Peoples, the legacies of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism persist in present day structures of racial discrimination, subordination and inequality.
These legacies remain among the primary barriers to the full enjoyment of human rights by racialised people including Indigenous Peoples throughout the world today. The historical harms of slavery and colonialism are therefore inextricably linked to present racial injustices, global inequality and human rights violations.
There is growing recognition by international human rights bodies and mechanisms that the legacies of slavery, including the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism require urgent reparatory justice.
What atrocities were committed under European colonial rule?
It is estimated that between 25 million and 30 million people were violently uprooted from Africa for enslavement throughout history. From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, approximately 12.5 million Africans were enslaved by Europeans and shipped to colonies in the Americas in what has come to be known as the “transatlantic slave trade.” Of those 12.5 million enslaved Africans, it is estimated that close to 2 million lost their lives during the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean.
The trade in enslaved people did not only affect the African and American continents. For example, between 1500 and 1850, Europeans were also involved, directly or indirectly, in trading between 953,900 to 1,275,900 enslaved persons “within an oceanic world that stretched from eastern Africa and Madagascar to the Persian Gulf, South Asia, and the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos”.
The colonial empires built by European states between the 15th and 20th centuries extended across nearly 80% of the entire globe. This means that two-thirds of the membership of the United Nations, approximately 127 out of 193 Member States, were subject to European colonial rule at some point in history. In many cases, this rule lasted for over 250 years. Among the many harms of colonialism was the denial of self-determination and dispossession of land from Indigenous populations, the imposition of colonial borders, plunder of natural resources, the exploitation of labor of enslaved and colonized peoples, and the destruction of local cultures, languages and knowledge systems.
How are the effects of slavery and colonialism being felt today?
European colonialism and slavery built the world that we inhabit today. It is palpable all around us – from the borders that divide us to the languages we speak and the knowledge systems we are taught. The incredible wealth that was made by European states through slavery and colonialism has led to gross inequality that continues to mark the world order.
We often think about slavery and colonialism as something that’s finished, but we are still living in its long shadow. We live in a world shaped by colonial logic.
For example, where people migrate from and to neatly maps on to histories created under colonial power, while low-income countries are most likely to be former colonies. So, while the transatlantic slave trade is over, many of the ideas of how the globe is organized and who can move where, how, why and when map comfortably with those divisions – and that’s why they are so difficult to undo.
What are some of the countries that are still reeling from the effects of colonialism?
Countries across the world, such as Haiti, are still reeling from the effects of colonialism and slavery. The enduring harmful effects of Haiti’s so-called “independence debt”, alongside the legacies of slavery and colonialism, continue to shape the country’s political, social, economic, humanitarian, and human rights realities. Imposed by France in 1825 under threat of military force, the financial burden crippled the country’s entrenched structural inequalities that persist to this day. As 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the imposition of the debt, Haitian activists and international organizations are renewing calls for France to provide reparations and acknowledge the profound harm caused by slavery and colonialism.
In Namibia, more than a century since Germany’s colonial genocide against the Indigenous Ovaherero and Nama peoples, descendant communities continue to be impacted by its legacies. The dispossession of ancestral lands and loss of cultural heritage as a result of the genocide have caused irreparable damage and transgenerational harm for the Ovaherero and Nama peoples that endures to this day.
Indigenous Peoples in Namibia today also face the perpetuation of colonial patterns through new forms of dispossession driven by the extraction of natural resources and the transition to renewable energies. For example, the planned construction of a major renewable energy project by a European joint venture on Nama ancestral land has been challenged by the Nama Traditional Leaders Association. Although the Namibian and German governments have concluded a joint declaration to address the colonial past, the agreement does not provide for direct reparations to Ovaherero and Nama descendants and failed to provide for the meaningful participation by affected communities in the negotiation of the declaration. Because of this, Nama and Ovaherero leadership have rejected the declaration and continue their struggle for reparatory justice from Germany not only through political advocacy but also through courts.
Have governments acknowledged the need for reparations?
For far too long communities and individuals directly impacted by historical injustices have been demanding reparations, especially Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent. Colonialism, enslavement, the slave trade and their ongoing legacies remain largely unaccounted for by European states and others who are responsible.
Although a growing number of states, institutions and corporations have begun to formally acknowledge or apologize for their role in slavery, the slave trade and/or colonialism, this has not been accompanied by other reparatory justice measures such as restitution or compensation which centred on or are decided with affected communities.
What barriers do people and communities face when it comes to getting reparations?
One of the biggest challenges in the fight for reparations is that many States argue that slavery and colonialism weren’t considered illegal acts at the time they happened. Because of that, they claim they don’t have any obligation to repair today.
This argument has been raised by a number of European states, notably those who benefitted and continue to benefit from the legacy of slavery and colonialism, to refute the existence of a duty under international law to provide reparation for these historic wrongs.
For example, in 2022 the UK voted against a UN resolution calling on States to provide reparation for past injustices, explaining that the UK does not agree “with claims made in this resolution that states are required to make reparations for the slave trade and colonialism, which caused great suffering to many but were not, at that time, violations of international law.”
Are communities holding accountable States for their role in colonialism and slavery?
Yes, communities are organising across the world to obtain reparations but it’s a slow process, with many European states continuing to oppose claims for reparations. In a historic move in December 2024, Belgium was found responsible for crimes against humanity for acts committed during colonization, signalling as a turning point for European states. The decision represents long-awaited recognition and supports additional claims for reparations for Métis people, victims and survivors of Belgian colonization.
In Canada, Indigenous Peoples have long been fighting for reparatory justice for historic and ongoing violations, including violations of their right to self-determination and loss of ancestral lands. The transatlantic slave trade and its enduring legacies created deep generational inequities that continue to disadvantage people of African descent. As part of the British Empire, Canada participated in this system, with institutions like the Hudson’s Bay Company profiting immensely from enslaved and indentured labour. While slave owners were compensated for their “losses”, after the abolition of slavery, through the Slavery Compensation Act—payments that continued until 2015—those who were enslaved and exploited have yet to receive justice, making the call for reparations both urgent and necessary.
In 2012, hundreds of Indigenous Peoples brought a class action lawsuit against Canadian authorities, seeking reparations for the forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families and placement in residential schools. The residential school system formed part of a colonial policy to eradicate Indigenous cultures, languages, and communities in Canada, resulting in the separation of approximately 150,000 Indigenous children from their families, identity, and cultures. Residential schools were also rife with neglect and abuse of Indigenous children causing thousands of deaths.
Survivor stories detail horrific physical and emotional abuse suffered that resulting in lasting trauma. In January 2023, the Canadian government agreed to pay a 2 billion US dollars to settle a lawsuit, with the settlement to be used to “revitalize Indigenous education, culture, and language – to support survivors in healing and reconnecting with their heritage.” As a result of an earlier class action lawsuit filed by thousands of Indigenous survivors, the Canadian government formally apologized for the harms of the residential school system and held a Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2007 to 2015 to investigate and record crimes and human rights violations committed against Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.
Regional bodies are also addressing the issue of reparations for historical injustices. In 2014, Caricom – the Caribbean intergovernmental body – developed a 10-points agenda for reparatory justice including full formal apology, illiteracy eradication and debt cancellation. The African Union designated reparations for Africans and People of African Descent as theme of the year for 2025, which has now turned into a decade for reparations going from 2026 to 2036.
What is Amnesty International doing to advance reparations?
Reparation involves not only justice for the historic wrongs of slavery, the slave trade and colonialism. It requires also dismantling or transforming contemporary systems and structures of racial discrimination, subordination and inequality that were built under slavery and colonialism, like white supremacy. Reparations therefore concern our future and our present as much as they do our past.
Over the past year, Amnesty International’s Racial Justice Team has:
- Developed legal arguments under international law for reparations.
- Advocated alongside the UN, producing oral statements, submissions and inputs into U.N resolutions, advocacy meetings and co-organising side-events with partners.
- Worked with partners to amplify reparations demands, through the Dekoloniale Berlin Conference, as well as for the cases of Namibia and Haiti.
- Continued to document the effects of colonialism and slavery on human rights today.
The team also works with partner organizations and communities struggling to achieve justice. They bring together groups and communities so they can learn about different ongoing reparation processes, discuss successes and challenges, and strategize how international law and advocacy may be used for achieving reparatory justice.
Going forward, the team will be attending the Wakati Wetu Festival in Nairobi Kenya from 22-23 October, where they will be working with partners African Futures Labs to ignite global conversations on reparative justice through art, activism, and community.
