Haiti’s “Independence Debt”: Building the Case for Restitution
In 1791, enslaved Haitians evicted French colonial enslavers and founded a free nation. But two decades later, the French returned, threatening to invade unless Haiti agreed to pay “reparations” for French financial losses, including the value of the lives of the formerly enslaved Haitians.
Faced with French warships off its coast, Haiti was forced to agree. And for generations it has paid this so-called “independence debt” to the descendants of its former enslavers, a ransom for freedom that amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. The catastrophic impacts of the independence debt on Haiti’s development and additional vestiges of colonialism on the Haitian economy and society continue to reverberate today.
In partnership with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), the 2024-2025 Human Rights Advocacy in Action Practicum explored avenues to advance Haiti’s case for restitution for the “independence debt.” IJDH works in partnership with its Haiti-based sister organization, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), to address systemic injustices to advance human rights in Haiti. Practicum students worked with IJDH’s co-founder and executive director Brian Concannon and IJDH’s senior staff attorney Alexandra “Sasha” Filippova, both Georgetown Law alums.
In addition to developing the case for restitution of this historic injustice, the Practicum highlighted the integral role Haiti’s restitution case plays in the broader reparations movement. The field investigation in Paris, Nassau, and New York City explored avenues to advance Haiti’s case for restitution for the “independence debt.”
For additional information on the independence debt, see 2022 New York Times article The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers.
