Piercing the colonial veil? Colonial crimes as crimes against humanity

Crimes against humanity have a longer grounding in colonial history than publicly acknowledged. The crimes against children of mixed European and African ancestry (Métis) throughout Belgian colonial rule in the Congo are a paradigm example. In the aftermath of the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference, historian George Washington Williams called for the prosecution of the mistreatment and discrimination of such children under King Leopold’s rule in the Free State of Congo. He branded Leopold’s atrocities as crimes against humanity. However, throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, colonial crimes have been covered by a veil of silence. The concept of crimes against humanity has largely been interpreted through developments after World War II, including the Holocaust. More than 120 years after Williams’ call, the Brussels Court of Appeal has closed a historical cycle and qualified colonial crimes against Métis children, born under Belgian colonial rule between 1948 and 1952, as crimes against humanity. This contribution relies on this ruling to analyse the historical marginalization and blindness towards colonial crimes in international criminal justice and ways to confront them. It shows how major legal instruments governing international crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide or apartheid) have rendered colonial crimes distant and invisible. The article then examines contemporary techniques to engage with colonial wrong (new semantic recognition, state responsibility), as well as the merits and shortcomings of the Métis Appeal decision. It argues that the decision carries historical significance and expressive force since it challenges the idea of the ‘colonial veil’ and highlights the potential of the concept of crimes against humanity to capture historical crimes. It concludes that the concept of crimes against humanity should not be read through the prism of the Holocaust, but in a more multi-directional way, in terms of past legalities, inter-temporal dimensions and colonial continuities, and highlights implications for ongoing discussions on the development of crimes against humanity (e.g. ILC Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity).