By Ibrahim Mansaray
Freetown, 7th October, 2025- The Founder of Reform Initiatives, Makmid Kamara, has issued a bold call to replace traditional human rights education with reparatory justice education, arguing that the time has come to confront historical wrongs with truth, healing, and systemic reform.
Kamara, who was speaking at an Enhanced Interactive Dialogue at the United Nations Human Rights Council, emphasized that human rights education has failed to adequately address the legacies of slavery and colonialism.
He proposed reparatory justice education as a transformative alternative, one that centers the lived experiences of Africans and people of African descent.
“Reparatory justice education is the pathway for addressing the lack of knowledge about the slave trade, colonialism and their legacies,” said Kamara. “No Justice Without Reparations”
Kamara argued that reparatory justice is foundational to all other justice movements – economic, environmental, and climate. Without it, he warned, global equity remains out of reach.
“Reparations without healing is a recipe for trauma in perpetuity,” he said.
Kamara praised the African Union’s declaration of 2026–2036 as the Decade of Reparations and Justice, and urged the European Union to declare a Decade of Reckoning and Repair. He also commended Ghana’s leadership in hosting international conferences on reparatory justice. This is something he urged other countries to emulate. “We call on other Member States to emulate Ghana’s efforts to advance reparatory justice and healing.”
This, he advised, can be achieved through collaboration with civil society, establishment of national reparations secretariats, and amplifying marginalized voices. On the other hand, he urged former colonial powers to acknowledge their historical wrongs and commit to systemic racial repair.
Makmid Kamara is a Sierra Leonean human rights leader, reparatory justice advocate and development communications practitioner. For nearly two decades, Kamara has worked with national and international human rights and grant making organizations across Africa and the United Kingdom.
He is also the Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East at the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), and until recently, the Founding Director of the Accra-based African Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF).
His organization, Reform Initiatives, is dedicated to harvesting the dividends of democracy through reparatory justice and contributing to reforming broken systems and structures
