Maat, ECOSOCC, IAPD and NMGA Demand compensation for colonial legacy periods and an end to double standards in humanitarian crises

Okeil: The United Nations must stand against calls for displacement and protect the right of peoples to self-determination.

Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights Association, in cooperation with the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union, the NGOs Major Group for Africa, and the International Alliance for Peace and Development (IAPD), organized a peaceful rally next to the broken chair in front of the United Nations headquarters in Geneva "Palais des Nations", entitled "Unite for Peace: Reparations not only financial compensations”.
With wide European and African participation, the peaceful rally witnessed many demands for fair compensation for the colonial legacy periods that lasted more than 140 years, and caused the continued decline in sustainable development and human rights to this day.

The peaceful rally also condemned the double standards in global politics, which led to many devastating humanitarian crises, for example in Gaza; In which civilians are facing devastating humanitarian conditions, reaching genocide, hundreds of thousands have been displaced, and thousands of entire families have been wiped out. The rally also presented other examples of the same duplicity when dealing with the crisis in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and West African countries.

The participants in the rally called for urgent steps to update and adhere to a global human rights framework, and to call for respecting all rights regardless of the political alliances of countries, or their strategic economic interests, and to put the value of humanity first.

In this regard, Ayman okeil, Chairman of Maat, and deputy presiding officer of the African Union ECOSOCC, stated that this year 2025 is an opportunity to pay attention to the African Union’s them of the year about the compensation that Africans should receive for hundreds of years of colonialism.

Okeil stressed that these compensations should not be financial only, as if they were gifts from Western countries, but rather broader compensations that include the recovery of the Stolen artifacts, changing school curricula that still deny recognition of the colonization violations, and fully recognizing what happened and working to remove its consequences.

In his speech, Okeil stressed the right of countries and their peoples to full sovereignty over their lands and his rejection of the interference of these countries in African affairs, especially the support of armed militias.

The participants also stressed their rejection of displacement under any circumstances and that displacement contradicts human rights principles.

It is worth noting that this peaceful stand comes on the sidelines of the participation of the Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights in the work of the 48th session of the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism in Geneva, Switzerland, which is witnessing the review of human rights situation in 14 countries in the period from January 21 to 30, 2025.