A U.N. committee warned Monday a host countries are legally bound to offer immediate cash settlements as reparations for the transatlantic slave trade alongside other yet to be determined measures – including, but not limited to “truth commissions” – to address the “enduring legacy of racial discrimination” it cautions still envelops the world to this day. The beneficiaries will be “people of African descent.”
Reuters reports the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated the obligations arise from a legally binding 1965 convention on racial discrimination, not from the legal standards that existed when the slave trade took place. The committee described the approach as a “paradigm shift” to end debate and force action away from arguments over historical responsibility that have been used to forestall reparations claims.
