De Parlementaire Commissie voor het koloniaal verleden van België

The Parliamentary Commission for Belgium’s colonial past – A restorative justice approach? In July 2020, the Belgian Parliament established a Commission to look into Belgium’s colonial past in the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. The Commission received a very broad mandate, that comprised looking at the state of the art of historical research, access to the archives, reconciliation and reparations, and the link between colonialism and racism. The Commission called upon the assistance of ten experts. The author was one of the experts and provided a contribution on the restorative or transformative approach of the Commission and on the development of a reparations programme. To this end, it is recommended that the Commission develops a reparations matrix, based on a diversified approach of reparations measures depending on the type of prejudice and the category of victims. In order to ensure the implementation of the reparations matrix it needs to be adopted by law. After the publication of the report of the experts, the Commission heard over one hundred victims, witnesses, and experts. Its final report is due in December 2022. It remains to be seen whether this per essence political Commission will be able to issue recommendations for a meaningful further apolitical process of restorative justice, that will certainly require more time and efforts.