The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has issued new guidance stating that states have a legal obligation to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and to implement comprehensive measures to address the long-term legacy of racism.
According to the document published Monday, these obligations arise from the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which is legally binding, rather than from legal norms that existed at the time of the slave trade.
The committee described this approach as a "paradigm shift" from debates over historical responsibility that many governments have used to reject reparations claims.
"States parties must take comprehensive reparatory measures for people of African descent, encompassing all aspects of redress," the UN document states. The text could be cited in court proceedings.
According to CERD data, at least 12.5 million Africans were captured and sold between the 15th and 19th centuries in the largest forced displacement in history.
Calls for reparations—ranging from formal apologies to financial compensation—have gained increasing international support, though opponents argue that states and institutions should not be held accountable for historical crimes. In March, the EU and the UK abstained from a UN resolution on slavery.
Some states have sought to avoid justice claims in courts by arguing that there was no international law at the time banning the slave trade—the so-called intertemporality principle.
However, the UN document argues that regardless of whether slavery and the slave trade violated the laws of that era, states are still responsible under current international obligations to address their enduring impacts.
"Whatever the legal characterization of the original historical acts, States parties remain bound by present obligations under the Convention to address structural inequality," the document states.
The document also emphasizes that financial reparations alone are insufficient, calling for "transformative" measures such as opening archives, reviewing public monuments, and establishing independent truth commissions.
Pela Boker Wilson, the committee's expert from Liberia who participated in drafting the document, said she hopes states will move beyond general expressions of regret and conduct policy and legal reviews.
"We call on states parties to act concretely and meaningfully," she told Reuters. "We want to affirm the dignity of those whose suffering has been denied, minimized, or forgotten."
