Belgium has been ordered by a court to pay millions of dollars in compensation to five mixed-race women who were forcibly taken from their homes in the Belgian Congo as children. The Brussels Court of Appeal made this landmark ruling, calling the colonial-era practice a “crime against humanity”. This decision comes after years of legal battles by the women, who will receive a combined total of 250,000 euros ($267,000). Monique Bitu Bingi, one of the women involved in the case, expressed satisfaction with the ruling, stating that justice has finally been served.
The women, who were part of thousands of children abducted due to their racial makeup, were taken from their mothers in the former Belgian Congo between 1948 and 1961. This practice was justified by the colonial authorities’ belief that mixed-race children threatened the white supremacy narrative that supported colonialism. The children were discriminated against, referred to as “children of sin”, and sent to orphanages or missionaries, where they were forced to disconnect from their families and original identities.
Despite an earlier ruling in 2021 that rejected the women’s claims, the Appeals court on Monday ordered the Belgian state to compensate the women for the moral damage caused by the loss of their connections and identities. Belgium has previously recognized the harm caused by these forced abductions, with the Belgian parliament passing a resolution in 2018 to address this historical injustice.
The court ruling sets a historic precedent for state-sanctioned abductions and acknowledges the suffering endured by the mixed-race children who were victims of this cruel practice. The women involved in the case hope that this decision will bring awareness to this dark chapter in Belgium’s colonial history and lead to further acknowledgment and reparations for those affected by these atrocities.