00:00A United Nations committee has called on countries to consider comprehensive reparations
00:05for people of African descent, saying the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade
00:10continues to fuel racial discrimination and structural inequality.
00:14The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination says governments should go
00:18beyond apologies, introducing measures including compensation, restitution,
00:23rehabilitation and reforms to laws and institutions.
00:26The Committee says these obligations stem from current international commitments,
00:31regardless of whether slavery was prohibited under the laws of the time.
00:35At least 12.5 million Africans were possibly taken and sold between the 15th and 19th centuries
00:41in what the Committee described as the largest forced displacement in history.
00:45The experts also urged companies, banks, universities and religious institutions
00:50that benefited from the trade to acknowledge their historical role
00:54and contribute to reparations.
