{"id":6798,"date":"2025-05-12T13:25:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T17:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/?page_id=6798"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:07:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T16:07:59","slug":"haitis-independence-debt-building-the-case-for-restitution","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/scholarship\/human-rights-advocacy-in-action-practicum\/haitis-independence-debt-building-the-case-for-restitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Haiti\u2019s \u201cIndependence Debt\u201d: Building the Case for Restitution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Faced with French warships off its coast, Haiti was forced to agree. And for generations it has paid this so-called \u201cindependence debt\u201d 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\u2019s development and additional vestiges of colonialism on the Haitian economy and society continue to reverberate today.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">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\u2019s case for restitution for the \u201cindependence debt.\u201d IJDH works in partnership with its Haiti-based sister organization, <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI)<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, to address systemic injustices to advance human rights in Haiti. Practicum students worked with IJDH\u2019s co-founder and executive director <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/careers\/hoyas-in-human-rights\/brian-concannon\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Brian Concannon<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> and IJDH\u2019s senior staff attorney Alexandra \u201cSasha\u201d Filippova, both Georgetown Law alums.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In addition to developing the case for restitution of this historic injustice, the Practicum highlighted the integral role Haiti\u2019s restitution case plays in the broader reparations movement. The field investigation in Paris, Nassau, and New York City explored avenues to advance Haiti\u2019s case for restitution for the \u201cindependence debt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">For additional information on the independence debt, see 2022 New York Times article <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/20\/world\/americas\/haiti-history-colonized-france.html\"><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">The Root of Haiti\u2019s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers<\/span><\/i><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faced with French warships off its coast, Haiti was forced to agree. And for generations it has paid this so-called \u201cindependence debt\u201d to the descendants of its former enslavers, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14986,"featured_media":0,"parent":1588,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-6798","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14986"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6798"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7337,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6798\/revisions\/7337"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/human-rights-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}