Five mixed-race women demanding reparations from Belgium after being taken from their mothers in Congo 70 years ago took their fight to a Brussels appeals court Monday. The women accuse the country of crimes against humanity over a colonial-era practice that saw them taken from their families and placed in institutions.
The complaint covers the period 1948-1961 and concerns the entire policy of placing mixed-race children in religious institutions managed by the Church, but which in fact resulted from a racial policy instaurated by the Belgian colonial administration in the Congo.
