H.R. 40 opens a legislative route to study reparations

The London Charter of the International Military Tribunal included enslavement among crimes against humanity when committed against civilian populations in connection with other crimes within the...

The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration, including a prohibition on slavery and the slave trade. It gave a universal language to abolition and human dignity, but did not determine...

States adopted a treaty to intensify efforts to abolish slavery, the slave trade and slavery-like practices. Its focus was suppression and prevention in the present and future. It did not explicitly...

The General Assembly adopted ICERD amid decolonization and the global struggle against apartheid. The convention strengthened legal duties against racial discrimination. It supplied an important...

The UN adopted a convention providing that statutory time limits do not apply to war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined in the postwar framework. It became relevant to later reparations...

The First Pan-African Conference on Reparations adopted the Abuja Proclamation, framing slavery, the slave trade and colonialism as harms requiring repair. It called on the international community...

MP Bernie Grant introduced an Early Day Motion welcoming the Abuja conference and urging recognition of the international community’s moral debt. Parliamentary advocacy translated a Pan-African...

The General Assembly decided to convene the World Conference against Racism, creating a global intergovernmental forum where African, Caribbean and diaspora advocates could press historical...

The Rome Statute lists enslavement among crimes against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, with knowledge of the attack. Its...

Civil-society organizations met before the World Conference against Racism. The NGO forum advanced a more direct account of transatlantic slavery, colonialism and reparations than many governments...