On March 26, 2019, the European Parliament adopted a resolution « on fundamental rights of people of African Descent in Europe ». Originally, the text was only about discrimination. After the lobbying efforts of Dr Louis-Georges Tin, articles 5, 7, 8 and 9 were added.
For the first time ever in the European Union, « the crimes against humanity against People of African Descent, and « their lasting impacts in the present », were officially acknowledged.
For the first time ever, the European Union was voting a text requesting restitution and reparation for People of African Descent.
Here are the articles :
« The European Parliament
7. Recalls that some Member States have taken steps toward meaningful and effective redress for past injustices and crimes against humanity - bearing in mind their lasting impacts in the present – against people of African descent;
8. Calls for the EU institutions and the remainder of the Member States to follow this example, which may include some form of reparations such as offering public apologies and the restitution of stolen artefacts to their countries of origin;
9. Calls on the Member States to declassify their colonial archives; »
Here is the link to the full resolution on the European Union website :
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2019-0239_FR.html
On March 29, 2019, a « motion for a resolution concerning the restitution of human remains and cultural goods from the colonial period » was adopted in the Parliament of Brussels.
https://www.parlementfrancophone.brussels/documents/proposition-030571-du-2019-02-06-a-14-11-05
Mireille Robert, MP of SOAD, and Julie de Groote, former President of the Parliament in Brussels, after a discussion on the law regarding restitution
That resolution is the result of a campaign launched on October, 16, 2018 by Dr Tin, Prime Minister of the State of the African Diaspora, and Mireille Robert, chair of Bamko-CRAN, and Member of the Parliament of the State of the African Diaspora.
On December 24th, 2020, the law on restitution for Benin and Senegal was promulgated.
26 artifacts were then restituted to Benin, and another one to Senegal.
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000042738023
That decision is the result of the campaign launched a few years before by Dr Tin, when he signed a call for restitution in Le Monde (main newspaper in France) and in La Nation (main newspaper in Benin), with His Excellency Nicephore Soglo, former president of Benin.
Dr Louis-Georges Tin, Prime Minister of SOAD, near Patrice Talon, President of Benin, celebrating the return of the stolen Artifacts to Africa.
26 artifacts actually returned to Benin on November 10th, 2021, and the Prime Minister, Dr Tin, was invited to Cotonou by President Talon for the public and the private ceremonies related to this historical event.
On July 30, 2024, the Beninese Parliament unanimously passed a law granting Beninese nationality to Afro-descendants. This text was the result of a campaign initiated a few years earlier by Maître Germany, a lawyer from Martinique who, along with Dr. Louis-Georges Tin, had met Benin’s Minister of Justice on this subject.
On May 8, 2024, President Talon’s government transmitted the draft law to the Beninese Parliament, but the initial text stipulated that new citizens by recognition would not have civil rights, and in particular, would not have the right to vote. Given this discrimination, they risked becoming second-class citizens.
The Prime Minister of the State of the African Diaspora (SOAD) then asked the President of the SOAD Parliament to call a meeting of the MPs. During an extraordinary session, they had the opportunity to propose amendments to the initial text. These amendments were forwarded to the President of the Beninese Parliament, and in the text finally adopted by the Beninese Parliament, citizens of the diaspora were able to obtain Beninese nationality, without discrimination of any kind.
Moreover, during the parliamentary debates, the leader of the opposition in the Beninese Parliament expressed some fears about the text. It is true that this was a totally unprecedented initiative. SOAD’s Prime Minister took the initiative of calling him personally to give him all the information he could about the African diaspora, and then published his responses in an open letter, reprinted in La Nation, Benin’s leading daily newspaper.
https://lanation.bj/actualites/projet-de-loi-portant-sur-la-nationalite-beninoise-aux-afro-descendants-dr-louis-georges-tin-repond-a-eric-houndete-et-au-parlement
SOAD’s Prime Minister asked the Beninese opposition to agree to support the text, even if it had been presented by the government, as issues relating to the diaspora and the pan-African family must transcend partisan divisions. And indeed, the text was eventually adopted unanimously. This is why the State of the African Diaspora wishes to thank both the government of Patrice Talon and the opposition for unanimously adopting this historic text, which recognizes that citizens of the diaspora are fully African, and grants them citizenship accordingly.
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