Belgium found guilty of colonial abuses against Congo

In a landmark ruling, a Belgian court has found the state guilty of crimes against humanity for the forced removal of mixed-race children from their mothers during Belgium’s colonial rule in the Congo.

This historic decision, issued on Monday, acknowledges the systematic abduction of five women, now in their seventies, who were taken from their Congolese mothers as young children and sent to Catholic institutions in the Belgian Congo due to their mixed-race heritage.

The five women, all born between 1948 and 1953, were subjected to what the court described as "systematic kidnapping."

The women, who were the daughters of Congolese mothers and European fathers, were removed from their families by the colonial state, which viewed mixed-race children as a threat to the racial hierarchy it sought to uphold in its African colonies.

This action was part of a broader policy of segregation and forced assimilation, which saw these children placed in distant Catholic missions, often far from their homes.

“This is a historic ruling,” said Michèle Hirsch, one of the women’s lawyers, speaking to the media after the verdict. “It is the first time that a court in Belgium, and likely in Europe, has condemned the Belgian colonial state for crimes against humanity.”

One of the plaintiffs, Monique Bitu Bingi, who was taken from her mother at the age of three, expressed a deep sense of relief upon hearing the verdict.

“I feel justice has been served,” Bitu Bingi told the Guardian, adding that the judges had recognised the act as a crime against humanity.

Alongside the other women involved in the case—Noëlle Verbeken, Léa Tavares Mujinga, Simone Ngalula, and Marie-José Loshi—Bitu Bingi celebrated the ruling, with the women expressing joy in their lawyer’s office upon hearing the news.

These five women were part of a larger group of children who were forcibly taken from their mothers and placed in Catholic institutions during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The Belgian court ruled that this practice, which caused lasting trauma and the loss of family bonds, constituted an inhumane act of persecution in violation of international law. This ruling came after an earlier court decision in 2021, which had sided with the Belgian state, dismissing the forced removals as acceptable under colonial rule.

However, the appeals court rejected this view, referring to Belgium’s commitment to the Nuremberg tribunal statute, which established the legal framework for crimes against humanity after World War II.

The court awarded each of the women €50,000 in damages for the emotional and psychological harm caused by their forced separation from their mothers and loss of identity. In addition, the Belgian state was ordered to pay over €1 million in legal costs.

The women had initially sought higher damages but limited their claim to €50,000 to avoid the risk of having to pay compensation to the state if they lost their case.

The forced removal of mixed-race children in the Belgian Congo had its roots in the policies of King Léopold II, who ruled the Congo as his personal colony from 1885 to 1908. Who was responsible for widespread exploitation and abuse. These discriminatory practices persisted even after the Belgian state took control.

Thousands of children were affected by the forced removals, though exact numbers remain unclear.

The policy persisted into the 1950s, after the legal concept of crimes against humanity had already been established in international law.

Upon their arrival at the Catholic mission at Katende, the girls were placed on a register labeled “mulattoes”—a derogatory term for people of mixed race—and often had their personal details falsified.

Many were told their fathers were unknown, despite the fact that their fathers’ names were often recorded.

At the mission, the children endured harsh conditions, with little care provided by the nuns who resented their presence.

As the Congo gained independence in 1960, the girls were abandoned, and some were subjected to further abuse during the ensuing civil conflict.