Fight for reparations gains a big supporter in UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet

Geneva, Switzerland - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has joined the call for reparative justice for people of African descent around the world!

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet (r.) has officially announced her support for reparations for people of African descent.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet (r.) has officially announced her support for reparations for people of African descent.  © Collage: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire, IMAGO / Agencia EFE

Bachelet released a report on Monday calling for countries to enact "transformative agendas" for addressing systemic discrimination. The investigation was launched in June 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.

The study, which looked into more than 190 police killings in different countries around the world, "could not find a single example of a state that has fully reckoned with the past or comprehensively accounted for the impacts of the lives of people of African descent today," one investigator said during a news conference, as reported by Axios.

The report further found that there were "striking similarities" in the challenges victims' loved ones faced when trying to seek justice and accountability.

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In light of this historical and deeply entrenched institutional racism, the UN report makes its position clear: "States should initiate comprehensive processes to halt, reverse and repair the lasting consequences and ongoing manifestations of these legacies in their specific national context. These processes should be designed to seek the truth, define the harm, pursue justice and reparations and contribute to non-recurrence and reconciliation. "

Reparations should not be limited to financial compensation but should also involve official acknowledgment and active efforts to create a culture of remembrance through education and memorialization, investigators recommend.

In the US context, the report mentioned several initiatives at the state, local, and private-sector levels, as well as HR 40, which was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in April.

Bachelet is calling for more such initiatives to determine the scope of human rights violations toward Black Americans and develop concrete methods for providing redress.

The announcement comes as a number of Republican-controlled states have attempted to ban "critical race theory" from public-school curricula.

Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire, IMAGO / Agencia EFE

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