The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has recommended that Britain erect statues and create public artworks honoring people of African descent as a means of atoning for the transatlantic slave trade. The guidance, published six months after UN member states supported calls for reparations, suggests that former slave-trading nations have an "obligation to repair" the harm caused by the historical atrocities.
CERD, comprised of 18 independent human rights experts, stated that public spaces should acknowledge the contributions of people of African descent and the wrongs committed by those who supported or benefited from slavery. "Satisfaction to people of African descent can include the right to investigation and truth, public judgments and acknowledgements, apologies, acceptances of responsibility and public commemorations, including memorials and dedications of public spaces," the guidance reads.
This recommendation comes in the wake of events like the 2020 protests in Bristol, where demonstrators removed a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston from its public plinth and dumped it in the harbor. Colston's wealth, accrued from his involvement in the slave trade and tobacco industry, was used to fund public works in Bristol.
Beyond public commemorations, the UN panel's guidance, largely developed by US lawyer Gay McDougall and Liberian legal expert Pela Boker-Wilson, advocates for broader societal changes. It calls on nations to "act early to prevent prejudice and address misinformation about transatlantic chattel slavery and its ongoing harms to people of African descent." Furthermore, it suggests that school curricula should provide unbiased accounts of slavery, its consequences, and the experiences of people of African descent in contemporary times.
The report's release precedes King Charles's planned autumn tour of the Caribbean, a trip where the British Royal Family's historical ties to the slave trade may face renewed scrutiny. Researchers are examining the extent of the family's involvement and benefits derived from the slave trade, particularly through the Royal African Company, which it patronized.
In March, African and Caribbean states renewed their demands for reparations, with leaders from Ghana and other nations calling on European states to acknowledge and compensate for the forced labor and abduction of millions of Africans over centuries. The president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, criticized the "deafening silence" from European nations enriched by the slave trade, emphasizing that the practice was unequivocally wrong, both historically and in the present day.
In 2023, a UN judge estimated that the UK could owe over £18 trillion in reparations. The CERD guidance underscores that reparatory justice should encompass societal transformation, not solely financial compensation.