The Brussels Court of Appeal delivered a historic verdict on Monday, December 2, condemning the Belgian State for its treatment of mixed-race children during colonization. The ruling came in response to a case brought by five women—Léa, Monique, Noëlle, Simone, and Marie-José—who were forcibly taken from their African mothers as children and placed in religious institutions under a systematic colonial policy. All five plaintiffs, born to African mothers and European fathers, were separated from their families before the age of seven.
The court deemed this practice, which affected an estimated 14,000 to 20,000 children, an “inhumane and persecutory act constituting a crime against humanity under the principles of international law.” This decision overturned a lower court’s ruling, which had dismissed the case as time-barred. The appellate judges argued that the acts were motivated purely by racial policies, making them crimes against humanity that cannot be subject to a statute of limitations.
Drawing parallels to the Nuremberg Trials, the court referred to precedents set during the prosecution of Nazi crimes, particularly the trial of the RuSHA organization, which declared the abduction of children a crime against humanity. The judgment highlights the racial motivations behind Belgium’s colonial practices and recognizes the grave violations committed under its colonial regime.
In addition to declaring the acts as crimes against humanity, the court ordered the Belgian state to pay tens of thousands of euros in compensation to each of the five women. For the plaintiffs, this verdict represents not only a personal victory but also a broader acknowledgment of the injustices suffered by mixed-race children during Belgium’s colonial rule.