The U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent are urging that the U.S. government give reparations to African-American descendants of slavery, reports the Associated Press.
The recommendations, which came after members of the panel met with Black community members in major U.S. cities, said that government officials should acknowledge that the slave trade was a crime against humanity.
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“The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality in the U.S. remains a serious challenge as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for the people of African descent,” committee chair Mireille Fanon Mendes-France wrote in the group’s finding.
The group found that recent police killings and violence against Black Americans have stemmed from post-Civil War racial tensions. Notably, none of the committee members were from the United States, but they all expressed outrage at the lack of acknowledgement from the U.S. government.
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“Contemporary police killings and the trauma it creates are reminiscent of the racial terror lynchings in the past,” Mendes-France said at a press conference. “Impunity for state violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
The group recommended that the U.S. require House representatives to study slavery and consider branding reparations.