The court said the Belgian state had a “plan to systematically search for and abduct children born to a black mother and a white father”.
“Their abduction is an inhumane and persecutory act constituting a crime against humanity under the principles of international law,” the court said in a statement.
The state was ordered by the court to pay the five women €50,000 each for the moral damages they suffered, and cover more than €1 million in legal costs.
The women — Monique Bitu-Bingi, Noëlle Verbeken, Léa Tavares Mujinga, Simone Ngalula and Marie-José Loshi — won their legal battle on Monday after the appeals court overturned a 2021 ruling that had determined that the case was time-barred.
“This is a victory and a historic judgment,” Michèle Hirsch, one of the lawyers for the five women, told Belgian media. “It is the first time in Belgium and probably in Europe that a court has condemned the Belgian colonial state for crimes against humanity.”
In 2019, the Belgian government apologised for the first time for the abduction of thousands of “metis” children — those of mixed European and African heritage — in Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) between 1959 and 1962.
The country was a Belgian colony from 1908 to 1960.
Belgium’s foreign affairs ministry, which represented the government in the case, has not publicly commented on the ruling.
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Publish date : 2024-12-03 04:37:00
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