The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has stated that countries are legally obligated to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and other historical injustices stemming from racial discrimination. The committee is calling for states to implement comprehensive restorative justice, which includes compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, and structural reforms.
According to UN News, these obligations arise from a 1965 convention on racial discrimination, regardless of the legal standards of the slave trade era. The committee emphasized that states remain bound by present obligations to address structural inequalities.
Despite the UN's stance, a conservative legal firm, Judicial Watch, expressed skepticism about the feasibility of implementing such reparations in the United States. Michael Bekesha, a senior attorney at Judicial Watch, stated that any reparations program in the U.S. would need to adhere to the nation's Constitution and laws, which he believes the UN's recommendations do not consider.
"Whatever the UN is thinking isn't going to be constitutional and is not going to fly in the United States," Bekesha told Fox News Digital. He added that reparations, by their nature, can be discriminatory and that a successful legal challenge could signal to other states and cities that benefits cannot be provided solely based on race.
Judicial Watch is involved in a class-action lawsuit challenging the Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program in Evanston, Illinois. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of non-Black descendants of Evanston residents, argues that the program unlawfully distributes public benefits based on race and ancestry, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fair Housing Act. The Department of Justice has joined this challenge, contending that the program's housing-related financial assistance is distributed on a racial basis.
Evanston was the first U.S. municipality to establish a reparations program, offering $25,000 benefits to eligible Black residents and descendants to address historical housing discrimination. However, the UN committee notes that financial compensation alone is insufficient and advocates for broader measures, including non-financial and structural remedies, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-recurrence.
The UN General Assembly previously adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity and urged member states to pursue reparations for "historical wrongs."