Slave-trade countries owe compensation, UN watchdog says

A United Nations watchdog says countries involved in the transatlantic slave trade from the 16th to the 19th century are legally obliged to compensate for the harm they caused.

Many implicated countries support symbolic or commemorative measures but remain reluctant to address financial or material reparations for the trade, in which millions of African men, women and children were shipped to the Americas and forced to work in appalling conditions.

A total of 182 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, are parties to the international treaty aimed at eliminating racial discrimination. In many of those countries, Black people continue to face discrimination and poverty today.

US historian Ana Lucia Araujo wrote that no former slave society has paid restitution to descendants of formerly enslaved people, while many compensated former slave owners.

Haiti is one prominent example. In 1825, the former French colony agreed to pay compensation to former landowners and slave owners in exchange for French recognition of its independence. The amount was eventually reduced from 150 million gold francs to 90 million, but Haiti had to borrow from French banks and took decades to settle the debt.

In 2022, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologised for the Netherlands' role in slavery, and King Willem-Alexander did the same in 2023. The Dutch government also allocated €200 million to raise awareness of the slave trade and its consequences.

The UN General Assembly declared in March 2026 that the slave trade and slavery of Africans were the gravest crime against humanity. The United States opposed the decision, while Britain and the European Union abstained.

Some institutions and local authorities have acted separately. The Church of England apologised for its historical links to slavery and in 2023 announced plans to invest £100 million to address generational damage to communities. Lloyd's of London said in 2023 that it would spend £52 million on racial equality causes after a report found it played a significant role in the slave trade. Evanston, Illinois, has distributed more than $6 million since 2021 through a housing discrimination scheme for eligible Black residents, according to local press.