The Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal filed by the Belgian State against a previous judgment concerning colonial-era atrocities, in a decision made on Friday.
As a result, the decision handed down by the Brussels Court of Appeal on 2 December 2024 is now final.
The Belgian Government has been definitively convicted of a crime against humanity committed during the colonial period.
The court ordered the state to pay civil compensation to five victims of a policy of racial segregation.
During the colonial era, Belgium implemented the forced removal of mixed-race children, a policy the court has now strictly penalised.
This final judgment marks the first time a European state has been ordered to compensate victims of colonisation.
