The Collectif Mémoire Coloniale et Lutte contre les Discriminations (CMCLD) published an article on its website calling for the removal of a statue depicting a black man and child in chains being bitten by dogs, situated in the Palais de Justice in Brussels.
On 27 March 2023, the CMCLD sent a letter to Mathieu Michel, Secretary of State in charge of building management, about the presence of the racist statue.
"The representation of a Black man with his child, chains on his feet and devoured by a dog cannot be an indifferent element of decor," the CMCLD stated in the article. The statue is called 'Nègres marron surpris par des chiens' (Brown Negroes surprised by dogs).
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The CMCLD further stated that the presence of the statue is a "perpetuation of violence on black bodies" and called for the removal and "deletion of the negative message sent by the statue and its duplicate at the STIB Legrand stop on Avenue Louise". The letter has thus far gone unanswered.
"The most emblematic building of the judicial institution of Belgium should, in its presentation, free itself from symbols which do not refer to equality'" the CMCLD stated.
The statue is one of multiple controversial pieces in the Brussels' public space which have links to slavery and colonisation.
