(New York, July 19, 2001)
Human Rights Watch said national and international panels should be
created with maximum transparency and public participation to identify
and acknowledge past abuses and to guide action to counter their
present-day effect.

"Groups that suffer today because of slavery or other severe racist
practices should be compensated
by governments responsible for these
practices," said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human
Rights Watch. "Those most
seriously victimized today by past wrongs should
be the first priority for compensation to end their
victimization."

Roth said reparations for past abuse should focus first on groups that
continue to suffer the most
severe hardships. "We're not talking about a handout or a windfall,"
said Roth. "We are calling for long-term commitments to correct the
damage done to the groups left most seriously disadvantaged."

Human Rights Watch proposed the establishment of national panels, in
multiracial countries such as the United States, Brazil and South
Africa, as well as one or more international panels to look at the
effect of the slave trade. These panels would focus on tracing these
effects not for particular individuals but for groups.

The panels should serve as truth commissions aiming to reveal the extent
to which a government's past racist practices contribute to contemporary
deprivation domestically and abroad, Roth said. They should educate the
public, acknowledge responsibility, and propose methods of redress and
making amends.

A primary purpose of reparations would be to address the social and
economic foundations of today's victims' continuing
marginalization-through means such as investment in education, housing,
health care, or job training.

The question of compensation for slavery will be one of the most
controversial topics when the U.N. World Conference Against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance meets in
Durban, South Africa from August 31 to September 7.

A copy of Human Rights Watch's position paper is available at:
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/race/reparations.htm.

For more information on race and human rights, please see:

Racism & Human Rights (HRW Campaign Page) at
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/race/index.htm