BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 31. The international conference "Belgian colonialism: acknowledgement and responsibility,” dedicated to Belgium's colonial past and its serious consequences in the present day, was held for the first time in Azerbaijan on October 31, 2025, organized by the Baku Initiative Group, Trend reports.
The event was attended by representatives of Belgium's former colonies, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi, as well as diplomats and officials.
The conference was attended by international law experts, historians, researchers, civil society activists, and reparations experts from eight countries.
The conference discussed the atrocities committed by Belgium against the local population in Africa, especially in its former colonies such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi—policies of ethnic division, mass killings, and looting of cultural heritage, as well as the severe consequences of Belgian colonialism that continue to this day. At the same time, there was an exchange of views on the ongoing exploitation of the resources of these countries as a result of Belgium's neocolonial policies in its colonial territories, the transfer to the international level of the demand for compensation to these peoples for the damage caused, and its inclusion in the agenda of international organizations.
The 2019 report of the UN Working Group on People of African Descent emphasizes that during Belgian colonial rule in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Burundi, tens of thousands had their hands cut off, a policy of ethnic separation was pursued, which has become a source of conflict today, the local population was forced into forced labor, and 20,000 mixed-race children were abducted and separated from their local communities and subjected to a policy of assimilation, which laid the groundwork for genocide. The report recommends the establishment of a commission to establish the truth and facts, open archives, and pay compensation.
Like other colonial powers, Belgium, while committing unprecedented atrocities against the peoples it occupied and exploited, unfortunately managed to hide these crimes from the international community. The conference also aimed to inform the public about the historical truth.