To end racism, we first need reparations

On 1 October 2025, OHCHR presented a report on reparatory justice together with the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Promote Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement (EMLER), which presented its annual report focusing on the negative effects of racial discrimination in the interactions of Africans and people of African descent with the criminal justice system. Two civil society representatives, Gabrielle Hemings from Jamaica and Makmid Kamara from Sierra Leone, participated in the event.

Although the report highlighted that some States had implemented legislative and other measures to address racism and racial discrimination (including Brazil, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Morocco), High Commissioner Volker Türk admitted that ‘no State has fully accounted for the past or present impact of systemic racism’. In this regard, the report reminds States of the 2021 four-point agenda for transformative change, which contains 20 actionable recommendations to end systemic racism, including dismantling the structures and systems designed and shaped by slavery, colonialism and successive policies and systems of racial discrimination.

This report is published at an opportune moment. Both the antiracist architecture of the United Nations, and regional bodies, namely the African Union and CARICOM, have increased their focus on reparatory justice. Within the United Nations, the Special Rapporteur on Racism, the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) are just a few examples of recent efforts to centre the debate on reparations.

In this context, the United Nations Antiracism Coalition (UNARC) delivered a strong statement calling on all States to fully implement the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) as a form of reparation. The statement also calls on States to implement migration policies centering human rights and non-discrimination; to follow the recommendations published by UN Special Procedures, including EMLER, concerning reparations and justice in the context of law enforcement; to implement measures to protect persons facing intersectional discrimination such as African and Afrodescendants, who are at higher risk of torture and ill-treatment when in contact with State officials; and last, the statement calls on States to guarantee Haiti’ s right to reparations, including the financial resources captured by former colonial powers. 

Please see and read the statement below or see it HERE. 

Read the statement below: 

UNARC and ISHR welcome the High Commissioners and EMLER’s reports, particularly in relation to: reparatory justice. 

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to reparatory justice; initiatives should be grounded in the history and local context. A comprehensive approach should consider links between the past and the present, by dismantling structures designed and shaped by legacies of the past. 

We welcome the ongoing efforts of various UN mechanisms to address reparations, as well as the African Union’s Year and Decade of Reparations. We highlight the former Special Rapporteur on Racism’s powerful 2019 report on reparations, which underlines the  legal obligations related to the granting of reparations for which States are fully responsible today. 

In this context, we call on States to:

1. fully implement the DDPA as a form of reparations
2. implement migration policies centering human rights and non-discrimination
3. follow the recommendations published by (UN) Special Procedures, including EMLER, concerning reparations and justice in the context of law enforcement
4. implement measures to protect persons facing intersectional discrimination such as African and Afrodescendants, who are at higher risk of torture and ill-treatment when in contact with State officials
5. guarantee Haiti’ s right to reparations, including the financial resources captured by former colonial powers, 

Thank you, Mr. President.