On Monday, the Belgian state was mandated to provide reparations to five mixed-race women who were forcibly placed in an orphanage 70 years ago under a colonial-era practice deemed a crime against humanity by judges.
Overturning a previous ruling that cited the passage of too much time since the alleged wrongdoing, the Brussels appeals court determined that the women, now in their 70s, were victims of an 'inhumane act of persecution.' The state's actions were classified as a crime against humanity, which, according to a UN resolution adopted post-World War II, is not subject to a statute of limitations.
The court directed the Belgian State to compensate the plaintiffs for the moral damage stemming from the loss of their connection to their mother and the harm to their identity and ties to their original environment.
This case marked the first in Belgium to reveal the plight of biracial children born in the former Belgian colonies (DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi), estimated to number around 15,000, though no official count exists. Most children born from unions between black women and white men were not recognized by their fathers and were segregated from both white and African communities. Consequently, many were placed under state guardianship and housed in orphanages typically managed by the Catholic Church.
The five women at the heart of the legal battle recounted being taken from their families, raised in a convent, mistreated, and abandoned when the Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960. The court noted that the women, born in the Belgian Congo, were abducted from their mothers without consent before the age of seven, as part of a systematic plan to remove children born to black mothers and white fathers.
The women had sought initial compensation of 50,000 euros ($55,200) each. 'We won,' declared Michele Hirsch, the plaintiffs' lawyer, in a message to AFP. Belgium formally apologized to the mixed-race descendants of its white colonists in 2019.
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