Reparations Order in Belgium Highlights Colonial Abuses Against Mixed-Race Women

A recent ruling reveals the pain of forced separations of mixed-race children during Belgium’s colonial past.

Belgium's judicial system has made a landmark ruling, ordering the government to pay reparations to five women who were victims of a state-sanctioned abduction policy during the colonial period in the Belgian Congo. The now-elderly women were forcibly taken from their families as children and placed in orphanages under a systematic plan to separate mixed-race children from their mothers. The Brussels Court of Appeal described these acts as crimes against humanity and recognized the severe emotional and identity damage the women experienced.

This ruling comes after a lengthy legal battle initiated in 2021 by Monique Bitu Bingi, Léa Tavares Mujinga, Noëlle Verbeken, Simone Ngalula, and Marie-José Loshi. The women argued that the uprooting from their families had lasting effects on their identities and lives. The Belgian government had previously issued apologies to around 20,000 individuals affected by forced separations in its former colonies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda.

Remarkably, the court's decision dismissed earlier claims that too much time had elapsed for the women to seek reparations, as the nature of the state's actions held no statute of limitations due to their classification as crimes against humanity. The women sought initial compensation of €50,000 each for the moral damages incurred.

It is crucial to highlight that these children, born to local black mothers and white fathers—many of whom denied paternity—were often denied Belgian nationality and subjected to additional abuse within the Church-run orphanages to which they were sent.

In a broader context, this case sheds light on the estimated 20,000 children affected by these policies in the 1940s and 1950s, marking a pivotal moment in Belgium's evolving relationship with its colonial history. The recent court ruling emphasizes the urgent need for acknowledgment and reparative justice for the injustices faced by these individuals, reaffirming that reclaiming one’s identity is a vital step towards healing.