Algeria will host on 30 November and 1 December 2025 the International Conference on the Crimes of Colonialism in Africa, organized under African Union Assembly Decision 903(XXXVIII) adopted in February 2025. The event, proposed by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, aligns with the African Union Theme of the Year 2025 Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations.
The conference will bring together ministers, jurists, historians, academics and experts from Africa, the Caribbean and other regions to consolidate a unified African position on historical justice, reparations, restitution of cultural heritage and preservation of collective memory. Discussions will aim to translate the continent’s shared demands into concrete legal and policy measures addressing colonial crimes.
Deliberations will examine the human, cultural, economic, environmental and legal dimensions of colonial crimes, including intergenerational trauma, the spoliation and destruction of African cultural heritage, and the exploitation of resources that produced enduring inequitable economic models inherited from colonial rule.
Special attention will be given to environmental impacts such as nuclear testing on African populations and to the legal pathways for criminalizing colonialism, slavery, racial segregation and apartheid as crimes against humanity, in line with relevant African Union recommendations.
Organizers expect the adoption of the Algiers Declaration as a continental reference for the codification of colonial crimes, the recognition of their impacts and the development of an African strategy for justice and reparations. The declaration will be submitted to the African Union Summit in February 2026 for consideration and endorsement.
As host and initiator, Algeria seeks to strengthen Africa’s architecture for historical justice by providing a high-level platform to advance international recognition of colonial crimes and to promote concrete mechanisms for reparative action, reaffirming its commitment to the dignity, memory and rights of African peoples.
