Belgium Court Rules for Reparations in Colonial Child Abduction Case

A Brussels court ordered Belgium to pay reparations to five women who were forcibly abducted from their families in the colonial Belgian Congo. Designated as victims of a systemic campaign against mixed-race children, the court's ruling recognizes the actions as a crime against humanity.

A Belgian court has made a historic ruling requiring the government to provide reparations to five mixed-race women who were forcibly taken from their families during the colonial era of the Belgian Congo. These women, now in their seventies, were removed from their mothers as young children under a state policy that targeted offspring born to black mothers and white fathers. In its recent decision, the Brussels Court of Appeal deemed the government’s actions a "crime against humanity" and an "inhumane act of persecution."

In 2019, the Belgian government had previously issued a formal apology to an estimated 20,000 individuals affected by family separations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as in Burundi and Rwanda, during Belgium's colonial rule from 1908 to 1960. The plaintiffs in this case—Monique Bitu Bingi, Léa Tavares Mujinga, Noëlle Verbeken, Simone Ngalula, and Marie-José Loshi—initiated their legal battle for compensation in 2021 after the state forcibly took them before the age of seven and placed them in orphanages primarily run by the Catholic Church.

Throughout their journey, Bitu Bingi emphasized the importance of accountability, stating, "Apologies are easy, but when you do something you have to take responsibility for it." The recent ruling overturned a previous court’s decision that claimed too much time had passed for the women to seek reparations. In recognizing the state's actions as a crime against humanity, the court ruled that there were no limitations on their claims.

The judges instructed the Belgian state to compensate the appellants for the moral damage incurred during their abduction and the loss of connection to their biological families. While the women sought an initial payment of €50,000 (£41,400), this case is significant in shining a light on the estimated 20,000 mixed-race children affected by forced removals during the 1940s and 1950s. Many of these children were abandoned by their white fathers, did not gain Belgian nationality, and were subjected to further mistreatment in church-run institutions. In terms of accountability, this ruling serves as a major step towards acknowledgment of Belgium's colonial past, which also saw the Catholic Church issue an apology in 2017 for its involvement in these tragic circumstances.