UN: Belgium Must Apologize for Colonialism, Face Its Racism

Racial discrimination against Africans “is endemic” in Belgium’s institutions and the nation needs to apologize for the crimes committed during its colonization of Congo and make reparations, U.N. experts said Monday.

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“The root causes of present-day human rights violations lie in the lack of recognition of the true scope of the violence and injustice of colonization,” the U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent said in an interim report on Belgium.

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The UN group says racism in Belgium continues today.

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The U.N. group said Belgium should consider reparations to the Congolese “with a view to closing the dark chapter in history and as a means of reconciliation and healing.”

It added that the Belgian government needs “to issue an apology for the atrocities committed during colonization.”

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