BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 20. An international conference titled “Belgium's colonial injustice and the 101-year path to reparations” will be held in Baku on August 21, organized by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG).
This was announced in a statement published by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG).
According to BIG, the event will bring together officials from former Belgian colonies, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Burundi, where Belgium is alleged to have maintained neo-colonial influence, as well as representatives from Morocco, South Africa, and the United Nations.
Participants will include the Ombudsman of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, members of the Congolese Parliament, Rwanda’s Ambassador to Türkiye and other diplomats, as well as UN experts.
The conference will also be attended by specialists in international law, historical justice and reparations, researchers, human rights advocates, and other experts.
The attendees will discuss advancing within the UN framework, including the Human Rights Council, the issue of Belgium issuing an official apology and providing reparations for alleged crimes committed against the peoples of the DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi during the colonial period. They will also consider the development of an international enforcement mechanism to monitor Belgium’s implementation of reparations and restitution obligations in line with the principles outlined in UN General Assembly Resolution 60/147.
The agenda will also focus on ensuring full and unrestricted access to Belgium’s colonial archives, involving experts from former colonial territories in relevant processes on an equal basis with international specialists, and returning human remains and other historical materials to their countries of origin.
UN General Assembly Resolution 60/147 outlines the rights of victims to legal remedies and reparations. It identifies various forms of reparations, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction (including recognition of harm and official apologies), and guarantees of non-repetition.
According to the organizers, Belgium has not yet fulfilled these obligations. They claim that Belgium has not issued an official state apology for crimes committed during the colonial period in the DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi, with officials instead expressing “deep regret,” which does not create legal obligations.
BIG also declared that although 84,000 cultural heritage artifacts have been inventoried, the repatriation process has been delayed for decades. According to the group, inventory data remains unavailable to the public, bilateral restitution agreements have not been signed, and specialists from the DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi still lack full access to Belgium’s colonial-era archives and documents.
Experts cited by the organizers describe the situation as a failure by Belgium to conduct a transparent examination of its historical responsibility.
