Hour of reckoning for colonial crimes

Special focus 48 publications
The colonial past has come back into the spotlight. Descendants of the colonized are demanding reparations. Former colonial powers, as if suddenly waking up, under pressure from changing power relations, are finally showing some willingness to "repair" this past, with measures like returning cultural heritage, official apologies and truth commissions. With an exclusive world map, an in-depth interview, analyses, reports and opeds, Justice Info asks: Will the tools of transitional justice be able to deal with these colonial crimes?
© Léa Djeziri for JusticeInfo.net
Colonial crimes: a chess game to negotiate reparations, restitution, truth and the duty to remember
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Restitution of a cultural artifact from Finland to Benin. Photo: Mari-Leena Talvitie, Finnish Minister of Science and Culture, hands over a royal stool formerly looted by France to Benin's Minister of Tourism and Culture, Jean-Michel Abimbola.
Benin: the faint breath of restitutions
20 May 2025 by Rachida Houssou
Looted by the French, returned by Finland, a Kataklè, a three-legged royal stool used for the coronation of Beninese kings, was discreetly returned last week to Benin, where questions are being raised about the State’s policy on the return and exposure of such artefacts.
Colonial crimes committed by France in Cameroon: a report seeks to establish the truth. Photo: French President Emmanuel Macron receives a copy of the report. What will be the legacy of the France-Cameroon commission?
8 April 2025 by Julia Crawford
After more than two years of work, a joint commission into French colonial crimes in Cameroon submitted its findings in January 2025. Some 1,000 pages eventually hailed by academics. Now the follow-up begins.
Political treaty on the future of the Chagos Islands between the United Kingdom and Mauritius. Photo: The island of Diego Garcia seen from a satellite. Will the Chagos treaty address the wrongs of the past?
22 November 2024 by Janet H. Anderson
In October 2024, the United Kingdom and Mauritius suddenly announced that they had “reached a political agreement on the future” of the Chagos islands, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean from which around 2,000 Chagossians were fo [...]
Indigenous rights in Australia: the role of King Charles III of the United Kingdom and the imprint of the Commonwealth. Photo: King Charles observes a performance by an Aboriginal group. Indigenous rights in Australia: the rôle of the Crown
28 October 2024 by Philip Murphy
On a visit to Australia, King Charles III was challenged by a senator of Aboriginal origin, Lidia Thorpe, who accused Great Britain of having perpetrated a “genocide” in her country, and called for recognition of the rights of Fir [...]
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Restitution of stolen gold royal artefacts to Ghana’s Asante king.
9 February 2024 by Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann
Ghana’s looted Asante gold comes home – what’s the deal? After 150 years, 39 artefacts that form part of Asante’s royal regalia are due to return to the Asantehene – the ruler of the Asante people – in Kumasi, Ghana, in February and April this year. Archaeologist and Ghana heritage spec [...]
Art installation in Australia representing the aboriginal flag
9 November 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Against tide, Yoorrook Commission goes on One year after the start of a unique Australian truth-telling commission run by First Peoples in the state of Victoria, known as the Yoorrook Commission, urgent recommendations have been made to authorities after hearings which gr [...]
France-Cameroon commission - Can a commission of historians help the two countries on the road to reconciliation? Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Paul Biya speak at a press conference in Cameroon.
25 July 2023 by Julia Crawford
Colonial past: can a historians’ commission help reconcile Cameroon? Exactly one year ago, on 26 July 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a commission of historians to shed light on France's colonial past in Cameroon. One year on, this commission has barely got off the [...]
Colonialism and decolonization in Switzerland - Hans Himmelheber poses near his mask collection.
21 July 2023 by Letizia Gaja Pinoja
Switzerland: the art of decolonizing a country without colonies Why does Switzerland, a country that never had any colonies, hold objects inherited from violent conquest? And how are this country and its museums becoming aware, through participation in restitution of cultural property, of thei [...]
Justice for Aboriginal people in Australia - Shane Patton, Victoria's Chief Commissioner, admits the injustices still faced by Indigenous Peoples.
16 May 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Yoorrook Commission: “It takes the death of an Aboriginal” to reform laws In the fortnight to Monday May 15, senior representatives of law, prisons and police institutions appeared before the Yoorrook Justice Commission, to face questioning over their responsibility in perpetuating the systemic injustic [...]
Aboriginal children in Australia - Yoorrook Commission reveals alarming colonization figures
2 May 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Yoorrook commission: the government admits “a shameful system” In Australia’s state of Victoria, the Yoorrook Commission reconvened on April 27 for a further round of hearings in which public servants, government ministers and senior police officers are to be questioned over the failure to ad [...]
Reparation for colonial crimes - Emmanuel Macron in Burkina Faso
11 April 2023 by Julia Crawford
Colonial crimes: the reparations movement stalls in Europe The wave of restitutions expected after French President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 promise to return stolen art to Africa has hit legal and political roadblocks. But while former colonial powers are shying away, it seems “New World” [...]
Restitution to Benin - Restituted statue finally packed in a box
7 April 2023 by Rachida Houssou
Why treasures returned to Benin are still in boxes The November 2021 restitution of 26 art works stolen by French colonists from the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, was celebrated as a model. But these treasures that Benin’s people should finally be able to admire again [...]
Colonization - Belgium - Congo
24 March 2023 by Gaëlle Ponselet
Belgian colonial past: "This issue will come back and demand to be tackled” At the end of 2022, a special parliamentary commission meant to shed light on the Belgian colonial period ended in bitter failure. What do representatives of the mainly Congolese and Burundian diasporas who participated in this co [...]
Aboriginal Children of Australia - Ballarat Orphanage
6 March 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Yoorrook Truth-Commission: Cold light on the child protection system The Yoorrook Truth Commission, in Victoria state, southeast Australia, restarted on Wednesday March 1 with a third round of hearings centred on truth-telling about the removal of the Aboriginal children from their families and chi [...]
Eleanor A. Bourke, Chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission in Australia.
3 February 2023 by Maxim Shanahan
Continued violence of colonisation exposed before Australia’s Yoorrook Commission At the national level, Australia has struggled to hold a truth, reconciliation and reparations process on the violence committed against Indigenous peoples. The state of Victoria, in South-East Australia, wants to reverse this cou [...]
Belgian Colonial Past - Black and white photo in which King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola of Belgium are sitting on armchairs carried by Congolese in traditional dress.
19 January 2023 by Gaëlle Ponselet
Belgian colonial past: Commission fails on apology to victims The commission on Belgium's colonial past was a pioneer in Europe, but it collapsed at the finish line at the end of December, stripped of all its well formulated recommendations. After two and a half years of looking into the pas [...]
A man walks in front of works of art exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (Netherlands)
10 January 2023 by Marjolein van Pagee
Colonial racism catches up with Amsterdam Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was sued by Indonesians for using the racist term bersiap in a recent exhibition. It is through court cases that Indonesian rights activists have changed the debate over the Dutch colonial past and exp [...]
Drawing of David Van Reybrouck
20 December 2022 by Christine Chaumeau
David Van Reybrouck: "The fight for decolonization can’t be detached from the fight against global warming" JUSTICE INFO IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS David Van Reybrouck Historian and author Belgian essayist, historian and journalist David Van Reybrouck has taken a close look at Belgian and Dutch colonialism in two major works: “Congo, a history [...]
Black and white photo of a hospital bed (operating table type) in the 60-70s.
21 July 2022 by Martine Lind Krebs
Denmark and Greenland confront a traumatic birth control campaign The contraceptive device IUD is at the centre of a crisis in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland. An investigative podcast has revealed that Danish health authorities in the 60s and 70s placed thousands of IUDs in Green [...]
Felix Tshisekedi and Denis Sassou Nguesso (foreground) attend the funeral ceremony of Patrice Lumumba (large portrait in background).
11 July 2022 by Caleb Kazadi
Lumumba's tooth is returned, while still waiting for truth Patrice Emery Lumumba, "father of Congolese independence", was finally buried on June 30 in Kinshasa 61 years after his assassination- This came after former colonial power Belgium returned his tooth ten days earlier. But while th [...]
3 Indonesian veterans (one crying) attend a commemoration ceremony for the victims of the war of independence against the Netherlands
10 March 2022 by Roel Frakking and Anne van Mourik
Dutch Colonial Violence and the Missing Voices of Indonesians The Dutch continue to widely underestimate their colonial violence of the past. The publication of the hard-hitting conclusions of the Independence, Decolonization, Violence and War in Indonesia 1945-1950-program revealed the Dutc [...]
Drawing of Massamba Gueye
7 March 2022 by Franck Petit
Massamba Gueye: “We need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on restitutions between Africa and Europe” JUSTICE INFO IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Massamba Gueye Director of the Kër Leyti House of Orality and Heritage "I have no master," claims storyteller and teacher Massamba Gueye. He is proud to be part of a generation that went to univers [...]
Indonesian prisoners (hands on head) are escorted by Dutch soldiers
22 February 2022 by Janet H. Anderson
Indonesia: the Dutch no longer can see colonisation in rosy terms Last week researchers in the Netherlands and Indonesia finally laid out the ways in which the Dutch state both condoned and concealed its systematic use of “extreme violence” during the Indonesian war of independence. In response, [...]
Harouna Daouda Dia is interviewed at his home by 2 people
17 February 2022 by Franck Petit
Restitutions to Senegal: "We must consult the people" In Senegal, a Fulani violinist is restoring the identity to an instrument collected 175 years ago by abolitionist Victor Schœlcher. The instrument is part of the Cité de la Musique collections in Paris, but this violinist reveals [...]
laboratoire deberlinisation
15 February 2022 by Franck Petit
Restitutions: Senegal takes the African Union ‘lead’ "The restitution of our stolen heritage will remain at the heart of our agenda," said Senegal's president on Saturday, February 5, as he took the helm of the African Union. Senegal, along with others such as Algeria and Egypt, is [...]
A cargo plane unloads the royal treasures at Cotonou airport (Benin)
12 November 2021 by Rachida Houssou
Benin celebrates return of stolen heritage 130 years on It is done! On November 10, Benin received 12 boxes containing 26 royal treasures stolen by colonial France. This was a historic day when Beninese people turned out to celebrate the return of these works after 130 years away from [...]
Banknote (dated 1920) of one Belgian Franc on which is written
2 November 2021 by Gaëlle Ponselet
Colonial crimes: Experts recommend that Belgium compensate "Monetary payment of a colonial debt, in light of Belgium's moral responsibility". This is one of the strong recommendations in an expert report published on October 27. For a year, ten historians, jurists and political scientists [...]
Exterior view of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin
11 October 2021 by Hannah El-Hitami
A castle full of stolen goods Germany is the first country in Europe to announce the return of its share of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria by 2022. Thousands of these art pieces were looted by the British in the late 19th century. But while negotiations about the pr [...]
A visitor to the Quai Branly Museum observes 3 statues from the royal treasures of Abomey.
1 October 2021 by Sètondji Roland Adjovi
Colonial crimes: Cultural property should be returned unconditionally Cultural property stolen from Africa by deception, coercion, or looting must be fully and unconditionally returned. This is the only valid reparation and a prerequisite for other negotiations to take place, writes Beninese jurist [...]
Statue représentant Rumben Um
13 September 2021 by Ephrem Rugiririza
Cameroon: Um Nyobè, a hero and symbol of French colonial crimes Exactly 63 years ago, on September 13, 1958, Ruben Um Nyobè was shot by the French army. Perpetrated in the context of a "secret war" that Paris has never recognized, the assassination of this nationalist activist is now mobilizin [...]
Bronze of Oba, a king of Benin
31 August 2021 by The Conversation France
Restitution of the 'Benin Bronzes': "All of the global North are implicated" A few months ago, Germany announced that it would return hundreds of priceless art objects looted during the colonial era, commonly known as 'Benin bronzes', to Nigeria. Professor Jürgen Zimmerer, a specialist in German colonial h [...]
Indigenous ceremony near the graves of children who were victims of Canadian residential schools during the colonial era
29 July 2021 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Canada’s reckoning with colonial violence Over the past few months, several mass and unmarked graves have been identified near former residential schools for indigenous children in Canada. Such institutions were created with the explicit objective of removing children fro [...]
29 July 2021 by Pascale Guéricolas
In Canada, tombs of indigenous children shake national conscience In the last two months, Canadians have been rediscovering with shock the details of a violent past. Over more than a century, many indigenous children died in residential schools where they were forced to go for their education. T [...]
3D aerial view of the future musuem of Abomey, in Benin
23 July 2021 by Rachida Houssou
Colonial crimes: Benin prepares for the return of its cultural heritage Five years after its official request for the restitution of its cultural heritage to France, Benin is getting closer to its goal. The return of 26 works looted during the colonial era has been set for 30 October. All the infrastr [...]
Benin Bronzes
9 July 2021 by Janet Anderson
Colonial Crimes: The empire on which justice (almost) never sets The British empire was the largest in history and it encompassed many colonial crimes. But the UK has been slow and timid in adjusting to contemporary demands for reparations, apologies, and restitution. And while there is no esca [...]
Queen Beatrix parades in the Golden Carriage (Netherlands)
2 July 2021 by Janet H. Anderson and Stephanie van den Berg
Between pride and apologies, the Dutch are not yet ready to repair Across the flat Dutch landscape there are mixed signals when it comes to dealing with colonial crimes. On one hand court cases, apologies from the King, and a national museum re-examining its own treasures in the light of slavery. [...]
Inscription in the Maori language on a wall
28 June 2021 by Christine Chaumeau
New Zealand leads the way on reparations for indigenous people New Zealand is decades ahead of other countries in dealing with its colonial past. For 40 years, under the Treaty of Waitangi, a process of reparation has allowed the Maori to be fully recognized at the political level. This is so [...]
The abolition of slavery in the French colonies
25 June 2021 by Myriam Cottias
How science can help thinking on colonial crimes reparation The database of the "Repairs" research project on reparations, compensation and indemnities for slavery (Europe, Americas, Africa) between the 19th and 21st centuries has just been made public. Its coordinator, Myriam Cottias, exp [...]
Amzat Boukari-Yabara
18 June 2021 by Clémentine Méténier
Amzat Boukari-Yabara: “France, the United States and Brazil are the main bad guys on this issue of reparations” JUSTICE INFO IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Amzat Boukari-Yabara Historian specialised in the African continent French historian Amzat Boukari-Yabara, a specialist on the African continent as well as Brazil, explores the international dimens [...]
Colonial Crimes: World map of justice initiatives
17 June 2021 by Clémentine Méténier
Colonial Crimes: World map of justice initiatives The colonial past is back in the spotlight in many countries, from New Zealand to France, Canada to Germany, or Sweden to the Netherlands. Official apologies, demands for reparations and restitution of cultural heritage, truth com [...]
13 November 2020 by Julia Crawford
Restitution of cultural property: Do you have to go to court? In the era of “Black Lives Matter” and the toppling of colonial statues, there is increased demand for restitution of cultural property seized or looted during colonization, often stored in Western museums and sometimes used for s [...]
31 August 2020 by Astrid Nonbo Andersen and Martine Lind Krebs
Activists demand mental decolonization in Greenland This summer’s surge of activism against colonial statues also affected Greenland. Is removing a colonial statue an erasure of the past, or does keeping it indicate that memories of colonial violence have been erased? This was the [...]
30 July 2020 by Caitlin Reiger
Australia’s first truth commission: transitional justice to face colonial legacies In Australia, calls for treaty, truth-telling and historical justice have a long and chequered history. And when Black Lives Matter protests spilled onto the streets of Australian cities, and numbers of non-Aboriginal Australians [...]
2 July 2020 by Gaëlle Ponselet
Belgium wants to confront its colonial past On 30 June, the King of the Belgians, for the first time, expressed his "regrets" to the Congolese people for the suffering caused by colonial rule. A week earlier, the Belgian parliament had initiated the creation of a "truth com [...]
10 April 2020 by Clémentine Méténier
Reunion’s transplanted children still waiting for justice Between 1962 and 1984, 2,015 children and adolescents from Reunion Island were "transplanted" to mainland France. On 10 April 2018, a report commissioned by the French Ministry of Overseas Territories recommended reparations for t [...]
1 July 2019 by Fannie Lafontaine, Amanda Ghahremani and Catherine Savard
Canada’s genocide of Indigenous peoples: Time for decolonisation On June 3, 2019, after three years of hearing thousands of stories of systemic and structural violence, Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls reached the “inescapable conclusion” that Canad [...]
15 March 2019 by Thierry Cruvellier
Alain Godonou: "We need an international convention to return African art" JUSTICEINFO.NET IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS Alain Godonou Director of the Museums Programme at the National Agency for Heritage Promotion and Tourism Development in Benin Founder and first director of the School of African Heritage, Benin [...]
3 January 2019 by François Musseau
Did Christopher Columbus commit genocide? In the United States, statues of the Genoese sailor have been torn down and Columbus Day renamed. Christopher Columbus is now considered responsible for the extermination of the Amerindians. Spanish historians denounce American "h [...]