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[News] Human Rights Watch: Dutch apology for slavery in the colonies is not enough


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Human Rights Watch said that real accountability for Dutch colonial crimes, including slavery and other forms of exploitation, is not an apology alone, but must be accompanied by compensation and accountability.

Members of the Dutch Parliament hold a minute of silence in The Hague, The Netherlands, 07 July 2016. Two Dutch UN peacekeepers were killed during a training exercise in Mali.

 

 

And earlier this month, the Dutch government indicated that it was close to issuing an official apology for the 250 years of slavery in the former colonies of Suriname and the Caribbean in South America.


However, after criticism over the timing of the apology and the lack of consultation with previously enslaved communities, it is now unclear whether the government will go ahead with the apology as planned on 19 December.

Last week, Prime Minister Mark Rutte met with Surinamese and Caribbean groups, some of whom said July 1 - the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery - would be a more appropriate date for an apology.

According to the Dutch government, the apology will not be accompanied by immediate compensation for the descendants of those who enslaved them. Instead, the government plans to allocate 200 million euros for awareness-raising projects, and 27 million euros for a museum about slavery and the slave trade in the Netherlands.

In July 2021, an official Dutch commission issued a 217-page report urging the government to reckon with its past of slavery. It described slavery and the subsequent slave trade as crimes against humanity with a continuing impact on the descendants of those enslaved.


The report recommended an apology, an investigation into slavery and efforts to address institutional racism in the Netherlands that allegedly has its roots in slavery and colonialism. In October 2022, a parliamentary majority supported the need for an apology.

For its part, Rights Watch called on the Netherlands to learn lessons from the failed compensation initiative launched by Germany to address colonial crimes in Namibia, where the lack of consultation with the affected communities hindered the process, which was rejected by the representatives of the people and the government of Namibia.

This human rights organization concluded that real accountability for colonial crimes, including slavery and other forms of exploitation, is through compensation, accountability and recognition of the effects of colonialism today.

https://www.aljazeera.net/news/humanrights/2022/12/15/رايتس-ووتش-الاعتذار-الهولندي-عن

 

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