At a glance:

• The new so-called ‘Restitution Bill’ (2022) focuses on the return of items to ex-Belgian colonies, but excludes claims for ancestors and/or archives. It also excludes claims from communities within countries of origin and excludes claims from countries that were not previously Belgian colonies.
• It still remains to be seen what impact this new law will have on returns from Belgian institutions

Jump to:

1. Overview
2. Law

Overview

Belgium had colonies in Central Africa, including modern-day Congo, but there are colonial collections from all over the world in the country.

In 2020, a special committee was set up by the Belgian government to look into Belgium’s colonial past, but in 2022 MPs failed to reach an agreement on whether to issue a formal apology to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda. However, the report made repeated reference to heritage and repatriation.

In 2021, a number of curators and scholars came together to draft a set of repatriation guidelines for dealing with Belgium’s colonial collections. The authors hoped the 70-page document would ‘stimulate public debate and push officials to take concrete action, recommend[ing] a comprehensive investigation of objects in both public and private hands’. The guideline included pleas for extensive provenance research and funding, and more collaboration with the communities and countries of origin.

Law

On 3 July 2022, the Bill Recognising the Alienability of Goods Linked to the Belgian State’s Colonial Past and Determining a Legal Framework for Their Restitution and Return (also referred to as the ‘Restitution Bill’) was adopted by Belgian government into law. However, the scope of the law is narrow, only focusing on belongings from former Belgian colonies (DR Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi) between 1885 and 1962, and not including archives or ancestors or belongings from any other countries. The law also excludes local communities within the country of origin from being involved in the repatriation process. Belgian scholars de Clippele and Demarsin have pointed out that the law gives the government ‘maximum freedom’ in negotiating repatriations, with no overarching procedure to follow and that ‘the relative lack of procedural rules renders the process less transparent and more political.’ It still remains to be seen what impact this law will have on returns from Belgian institutions. As of November 2025, the law has not been applied in practice yet.