The Belgian State has been summoned to appear in court to answer for the racial policy it pursued when it had guardianship over Congo (current Democratic Republic of the Congo) between 1908 and 1960. The appeal trial will take place on Monday and Tuesday.
The case, which is the first of its kind in Europe, was first heard in 2021 by the Brussels Civil Court, which rejected the claim by the five plaintiffs. An appeal was subsequently lodged.
The five women, who were born in Congo between 1946 and 1950, are suing the Belgian State for civil liability for crimes against humanity. They are claiming damages for the serious harm caused to them when they were abducted and segregated.
The women are the children of Belgian men and Congolese women conceived when Congo was a Belgian colony. They were taken from their home and forcibly placed in orphanages, like most very young mixed-race children. According to official documents from the colonial archives, abductions of mixed-race children were organised by officers of the Belgian State and carried out with the help of the Church.
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Officials of the colonising state were instructed to organise the abduction of children from mixed marriages by forcing their mothers to separate from them. The children were placed in Catholic missions in Congo and in Rwanda, far from their homes.
From a very young age –in some instances just a few months, and up to five years – mixed-race children were removed from their mothers and their native villages using force, threats, or deception.
In 2018, then-Prime Minister Charles Michel apologised on behalf of the Belgian State for the forced abduction and targeted segregation of mixed-race children in Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. The plaintiffs are now seeking steps to remedy the damage.
