Belgium’s Court of Cassation has delivered a definitive ruling against the Belgian state on account of the removal mixed-race children from their mothers in the DR Congo when it was still a Belgian colony. Five women, who were taken to Catholic orphanages in Belgium in the 1950s as a result, brought the case. The Belgian state must now pay them compensation in a European first.
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Belgium convicted of removing mixed-race children from their mothers in colonial Congo in European first
Colin Clapson
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Eight years ago five women took their case to court. They were born between 1946 and 1950 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were the result of a relationship between a Belgian man and a Congolese woman.
All this happened during the period when the Congo was a Belgian colony. Like most mixed-race children, they were taken from their families and sent to Catholic orphanages in Belgium. The women were no older than seven at the time.
Documents recovered from colonial archives showed that the abductions of mixed-race children were organised by Belgian officials, with the knowledge of the Church. Belgian colonial officials were tasked with tracking down children from mixed relationships and forcing their mothers, sometimes by force, to hand over the children.
Crime against humanity
At the end of 2024, the Brussels Appeal Court ruled in the women’s favour: they had been taken away by the Belgian state without their mothers’ consent. The court spoke of “the systematic abduction of children from mixed relationships”.
Under international law stemming from the Nuremberg trials, these are crimes against humanity, to which the statute of limitations does not apply. In doing so, the Brussels Appeal Court directly contradicted an earlier ruling from a civil court dating from 2021.
The Belgian state was subsequently ordered to pay compensation to the women, for the suffering inflicted on them by tearing them away from their mothers and their environment. But also for the negative impact on their identity.
The Belgian state lodged an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s ruling with the Court of Cassation that checks due legal process has been carried out. It is that appeal that has now been dismissed by the Court of Cassation. This makes the conviction of the Belgian state final and thus obliges the state to pay compensation to the women.
Lawyer: “Magnificent victory”
This is the first time a European state has been ordered to pay compensation to victims of colonisation. “This is a major victory for justice and for the development of European law,” says lawyer Michèle Hirsch, commenting on what she described as a “magnificent victory” in the Métisse Case.
The lawyer says she “takes her hat off to the Belgian justice system”. Hirsch’s five clients, now all grandmothers and great-grandmothers, have fought for justice for eight years, “and they have finally received it”, says the lawyer.
A model for other colonial cases
The lawyer hopes that, following this ruling, Belgium can now serve as a model in other colonial cases. She also hopes that work can begin on legislation regarding compensation for colonial crimes and for all people of mixed race, born to a black mother and a white father, who were taken from their mothers during the colonisation of Congo, Rwanda or Burundi, two territories administered by Belgium under mandates from the League of Nations and the UN.