Five victims of racial segregation in Congo are pursuing a case against the Belgian state at the Court of Appeal in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday.
The plaintiffs, who unsuccessfully sued Belgium in the first instance for its racist policies while controlling Congo between 1908 and 1960, are now seeking state condemnation.
This case, the first of its kind in Europe, was initially pleaded before the civil court in Brussels in 2021 which rejected the request of the five civil parties, prompting an immediate appeal.
The women, born in Congo between 1946 and 1950, are arguing that Belgium committed crimes against humanity due to their abduction and segregation of Congolese children. They are seeking compensation for the suffering they experienced, and are also requesting documentation detailing their origins and backgrounds.
All were born from relationships between Belgian men and Congolese women when Congo was a Belgian colony.
These women, like most mixed-race children of that era, were taken from their families and placed in orphanages. Records found in colonial archives suggest these abductions were organised by Belgian officers, with the Church’s knowledge.
In 2018, former Prime Minister Charles Michel formally apologised on behalf of the Belgian government for the forced abductions and segregation of mixed-race individuals in Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.
The civil parties have welcomed the apology as a first step, but are insisting on associated reparations.
