French President Faces Calls to Discuss Reparations for Historical Slavery

The French president is under pressure to open discussions on reparatory justice for France's role in the enslavement of African people over several centuries. Officials said the memorial work around slavery and the slave trade remains a permanent project of recognition.

On Thursday the president will mark the 25th anniversary of France becoming the first country to recognize the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity in a 2001 law. The law was brought by a leading member of parliament from French Guiana.

Demands are growing for the president to launch a formal discussion process on how to address the legacies of enslavement in French society. France is facing a political row over racism in politics, the media and society, and the far right is polling high ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The sense of urgency comes amid anger that French representatives abstained in March's UN vote to describe the transatlantic chattel slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity and call for reparations. A Guadeloupe senator wrote in an open letter that France had committed a moral, historic, diplomatic and political mistake in abstaining.

From the 16th to the 19th centuries, France was the third largest trafficker of enslaved people across the Atlantic and Indian oceans among European nations. France was responsible for kidnapping and enslaving about 13 percent of the estimated 13 to 17 million people forced from Africa across the Atlantic.

A descendant of enslaved Africans who were trafficked from Benin to Martinique and a descendant of 18th-century slave-ship owners in Nantes wrote to the president this month asking for discussions on reparatory justice. They said this would restore trust between communities, acknowledge history, foster brotherhood and heal psychological wounds.

The director of France's Foundation for the Remembrance of Slavery and its president, the former prime minister, published an open letter last month asking France to lead dialogue on addressing racism and inequality linked to enslavement. Paris is seen as crucial because several overseas departments remain part of France.

France is also facing demands for potentially billions of dollars in reparations to Haiti after imposing a financial penalty in 1825. That debt was only fully repaid in 1947. In 2025 the president announced a joint commission with Haiti to examine the issue, with conclusions due by the end of this year.