In a few weeks’ time, the International Movement for Reparations (MIR) and hundreds of individuals will be taking the French State to the Paris Civil Court to seek reparations for the harm suffered both by our ancestors and by us as a result of the crime against humanity that was the slave trade and slavery.
As you know, for more than three centuries, the French State organised, regulated and practised the slave trade and slavery.
This new legal action follows two previous claims for reparations, which were brought in 2005 and then in 2014 before the courts in Fort-de-France.
These courts recognised our right to reparations and therefore that we, as people of African descent, do indeed have a claim against France.
However, in rejecting our claims, the courts in Fort-de-France ruled that our claims were time-barred.
In other words, that we had acted too late.
Yet the defining characteristic of a crime against humanity is that it is not subject to any statute of limitations. This principle has been applied to crimes against humanity committed against other peoples, including the Jewish people, who continue to this day to seek reparations.
That is why it is important for us, as people of African descent – given that our right to reparations is now recognised – to bring a new case to demonstrate that, like any crime against humanity, the slave trade and the enslavement of our ancestors are also not subject to any statute of limitations.
Furthermore, in the new claim we are submitting to the Paris court, we demonstrate that the two previous rulings by the courts in Fort-de-France, by disregarding the fact that the transatlantic slave trade and slavery—crimes against humanity—are not subject to any statute of limitations, were discriminatory towards people of African descent.
Furthermore, we considered it essential that this new action for reparations be open to all descendants of Africans enslaved throughout the world, and particularly in Africa, the Caribbean, and North and South America.
Indeed, France was a major slave-trading power and, for over a century, benefited from the ‘assiento’ – that is, the monopoly on the slave trade, the deportation, the trade and the introduction of African slaves into the American colonies.
We therefore invite all people of African descent from these countries who have suffered these crimes to take part in this action.
To do so, please register now by accessing the online registration form:
Dans quelques semaines le Mouvement International pour les Réparations (MIR) et des centaines de personnes vont assigner l’Etat français devant le tribunal judicia
ILS NOUS ONT MENTI !
Le Code Noir ne peut être abrogé
Plainte déposée par le MIR et le CNR