The Court of Cassation examined this Wednesday, May 31, the appeal filed by several associations and individuals to obtain compensation from the State for the damages suffered by the descendants of slaves, particularly in Martinique.
Three associations, the International Movement for Reparations (MIR), the May 10 Organizing Committee and the International Committee of Black Peoples (ICNP), as well as 23 individuals, are calling for recognition of the "transgenerational harm" of the slave trade and slavery for the descendants of slaves.
'Transgenerational harm'
The Fort-de-France Court of Appeal had rejected this request in January 2022, confirming the judgment of first instance and invoking the prescription of the facts. "This is the first time that the Court of Cassation will rule on this notion of trangenerational damage," which would be "transmitted from generation to generation," explains to AFP the lawyer of the applicants, Patrice Spinosi. This would "go beyond the Taubira law which is only symbolic," adds the lawyer in reference to the 2001 law that recognizes the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity. The lawyer asked the Court to draw "concrete and pecuniary legal consequences that result from the responsibility of the State in slavery".
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The objective is to obtain "a pecuniary compensation paid to a fund likely to come to supplement the claims of the descendants of slaves," detailed to AFP Me Spinosi. Advocate General Blandine Mallet-Bricout recommended that the appeal be dismissed. The Court of Cassation will deliver its decision on 5 July. This procedure is not the first initiated by the MIR. After the passage of the Taubira law, several associations in the West Indies began legal proceedings for reparations against the State, without success.