Biden appointee calls on UN to create reparations tribunal: 'What justice looks like in the 21st century'

A Howard University law professor called on the United Nations to set up a reparations tribunal and explore options to offer some type of "justice" to Black Americans for slavery.  

Justin Hansford, a Biden administration appointee to the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD), made the comments at the PFPAD’s 2nd session last week.

Hansford said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have A Dream" speech lays out the argument for reparations, but the speech has been "distorted, sanitized and drained of its true radical vision."

"Despite that, I believe we can now safely say that Dr. King's assertion that the U.S. Constitution was a promissory note, which came back marked insufficient funds for its Negro citizens, was both accurate and ominous. The truth is, Dr. King believed in reparations. He called for it explicitly up until the last speech of his life. The promissory note, the check that he demanded, according to the terms of the U.S. Constitution, was never cashed. And 60 years ago, until today, the wealth gap between African Americans and White Americans remains exactly the same," he said in the May 30 address. 

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"So 60 years later, it's up to us to now acknowledge him as the visionary he is, because after all of these years, it's now clear, more clear now than ever before that reparations is what justice looks like in the 21st century."

The law professor added that a research project done by his students found that over 90 reparations committees have been created in the U.S. since the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Hansford argued reparations should be framed as a type of "justice" or "repair" for Black Americans rather than as a "gift" or "charity." 

He said there are two legal concepts that could apply to reparations. "Crimes against humanity governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court adopted in 1988 is, one, perhaps interesting legal concept that we could apply to what happened to our people. Genocide determined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the General Assembly in 1948, shortly after the Holocaust is another interesting legal claim that could be brought," Hansford told attendees. 

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The PFPAD member argued White scholars and lawyers have controlled the narrative of determining what type of reparations should be given to Black people. 

"I come to you today with a novel proposal that we begin to think our own thoughts, propose our own vision of justice, and implement that justice as part of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent," he said. "I also propose today that we create a new bar association, including lawyers and non-lawyers, to discuss what it means to be prepared in 2023 for crimes that have been done to us and are continuing to be done to us for over 500 years." 

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Hansford continued, saying he would like the PFPAD to create a "new community of legal thinkers that's not limited to lawyers but includes anyone who is passionate about justice." "And we come together and demand that many of the states in this room that have benefited from the legacy of our oppression start the process of apology and reparation, but not on their terms, but on our terms," he concluded.  

Biden nominated Hansford to work with the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD), which he will serve for the 2022-2024 term.