“Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations” — the African Union’s 2025 theme — resonates far beyond symbolism. It is a moral and legal imperative that African judges, jurists, and legal institutions must uphold with clarity, courage, and consistency.
On 25 May 2025, we joined millions across the continent and the diaspora in marking Africa Day — a day of remembrance, celebration, and resolve. While we honour the collective achievement of continental liberation, we also rise to confront the unfinished work of justice. As members of the legal fraternity, we recognize that true freedom remains incomplete without reparative justice.
Re-echoing the AU 2025 Theme: A Legal and Moral Compass
The African Union’s 2025 theme, “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations”, is not a ceremonial declaration — it is a continental call to action. It reflects a shared commitment to:
- Confront the enduring legacies of slavery, colonialism, and apartheid
- Acknowledge the continuing harm experienced by Africans and people of African descent worldwide
- Demand full accountability from states, institutions, and corporations that benefited from historical injustices
- Reimagine Africa’s development path through restitution, self-determination, and legal empowerment
As judges and jurists, we have a duty to align our jurisprudence with this framework, ensuring that justice systems become vehicles for redress, not instruments of denial.
This theme reinforces our belief that reparatory justice is not a favor to be granted — it is a right to be realized.
Reclaiming Justice: More Than a Theme
This year’s theme calls for more than reflection — it calls for restitution. The legal systems of Africa must play a central role in redressing historical wrongs and enabling restorative pathways. These include:
- Slavery and the Transatlantic Enslavement of Africans
- Colonial exploitation and expropriation
- Apartheid and systemic racial violence
- Modern forms of economic and ecological neo-colonialism
The African Union’s theme rightfully places reparations at the centre of justice, dignity, and self-determination. As judicial actors, we are bound not just by moral conscience but by legal instruments that demand action — from the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to the Durban Declaration and the UN Basic Principles on the Right to Reparation.
The Judiciary’s Role: A Mandate for Memory, Redress, and Reform
As the African Judges and Jurists Forum, our commitment is clear: to ensure justice systems become enablers — not obstacles — to reparatory justice.
We reaffirm our support for:
- Strategic litigation that seeks land return, cultural restitution, and reparative compensation
- National and regional truth commissions that acknowledge trauma and propose just remedies
- Policy and constitutional reforms embedding the principles of justice, memory, and redress
- Voices of women, youth, and the African diaspora, who have long led the call for reparation
We call on African legal institutions to:
- Integrate reparatory justice into legal education and judicial training
- Create enabling jurisprudence that recognizes historical injustice as a justiciable claim
- Collaborate with civil society, academia, and pan-African bodies to advance reparations discourse
- Engage with the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent and other mechanisms
Honouring the Past, Securing the Future
This Africa Day, we remind ourselves that the law must be a tool of remembrance — not erasure. It must speak the truth of history, enable the healing of wounds, and ensure that those who have suffered receive recognition and redress.
We do not commemorate Africa Day with nostalgia alone. We commemorate it with purpose — to pursue justice that repairs, restores, and reclaims.
As the African Judges and Jurists Forum, we stand united with our peers across the continent and the diaspora in building a future where justice is not delayed, denied, or diminished — but delivered.
“We honour our past by building a just future — one rooted in memory, courage, and repair.”
#AfricaDay2025 #ReparatoryJustice #AJJF #JusticeForAfricans #PanAfricanLaw #LegalRedress #AfricanUnion2025 #DignityThroughJustice #JudgesForJustice