Mr. President,
Human Rights Watch welcomes the OHCHR's timely report calling on governments and private institutions to urgently deliver comprehensive, rights-based and community-centered reparatory justice to address both historical and ongoing harms related to colonialism and enslavement. These measures are essential to dismantling persistent systemic racism.
Human Rights Watch has documented the impacts of ongoing abuses and injustices linked to these legacies while seeking to amplify the voices of communities calling for reparations. Whether it is the Chagossian people who are still denied reparations after being forcibly displaced from their homeland by the UK and the US; Namibian communities who are still fighting for reparations from former colonial power, Germany to address its colonial legacy; or Black people in the US who are currently fighting against government attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion while still being denied reparations for the lasting impacts of the US' legacy of enslavement-we see communities' calls for reparatory justice going unanswered.
We urge governments with legacies of enslavement and colonialism to implement the recommendations outlined in the report, especially the recognition of the right to reparations as applicable to addressing these legacies and to dismantling enduring systemic racism and inequalities. The report also emphasizes that affected communities must be meaningfully involved from the outset until the end of any reparatory process.
Achieving reparatory justice is not a matter of charity but an obligation under international human rights law and standards.
