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ACHPR85: African Commission monitors the implementation of the African Union 2025 theme

While the actions of the decade are orientated on the reparation of African and African Descents, the African Commission held a panel to assess the implementation of the recommendations with a human-right based focus.

The AU agenda emphasised a multidimensional approach to justice, which includes

restitution, rehabilitation, acknowledgment of harm, and guarantees of non-repetition (...) while restoring dignity, correcting structure, inequality, and affirming the humanity of those historically marginalised
Commissioner Zakaria Mudford Mwandenga, Chairperson of the Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Affairs

In line with the African Union’s theme for 2025, the African Commission organised this panel to discuss the human rights-based approach to distribution required of Africans and people of African descent.

Recognising that this theme raised issues of ancestry, colonialism, slavery, abduction, enforced disappearance, apartheid, and racial discrimination, the panel analysed the issue of reparations from different perspectives. 

On the legal framework. At the global level, the panel mentioned the UN basic principles on the right to remedy (2005), the UN second international decade (2025-2034), the ICERD, and the ICCPR. At the regional level, Mary Izobo referred to articles 2 and 3 of the African Charter and the Resolutions ACHPR/Res.543 (LXXIII) 2022 and ACHPR/Res.616 (LXXXI) 2024 of the African Commission, as well as soft laws, Abuja proclamation (1993), Durban Programme of Action (2001), and Accra Declaration (2023).  

On the issue of repatriation through restitution, the panel acknowledged the recovery of stolen artifacts in some countries of the continent. This includes Benin, Nigeria. 

On reparation through recognition of African Descent, the panel indicated that, among countries that made a major step in this process, are Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, which granted citizenship to some African descents of the diaspora. 

To fully achieve the reparation, the panel, moderated by Commissioner Dr. Litha Musyimi-Ogana, agreed on the need for, among others: 

  1. Acknowledgment of historical crime 
  2. Restitution of property 
  3. Financial compensation 
  4. Rehabilitation addressing intergenerational harm 
  5. Satisfaction through truth-telling and memorandum 
  6. Non-repetition through institutional reforms 
Reparation means a reunification of Africa with its diaspora
Felipe Noguera, Coordinator, Caribbean Pan African and Indigenous Movement

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Lidawh-wè Fabienne Dontema

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