Talk:Belgian colonial empire
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[edit] Belgian colonialism
(From Gsd2000's talk page) You removed the reference and while it should be better explained couldn't it fall under corporate colonialism? While its not owned by the state, its generally still considered part of the colonial empire. The Dutch and the English were known to have used this early on. 12.220.94.199 01:27, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
- It is true that the English and Dutch empires grew from commercial ventures... however that is completely different to the Belgians in Guatemala who were allowed to operate there as a private enterprise by permission of the actual colonial masters. The Belgian government/monarch did not have a "colony" in Central America, and it would be highly misleading to even mention it in this article. Gsd2000 01:53, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
I have read however, that the Belgian govt was looking to gain a foothold in Central America before they decided on Africa.
[edit] Universal jurisdiction law
"Belgium's major modern day vestige of colonialism is its “universal jurisdiction” law which, it asserts, allows it prosecute human rights abuses no matter where in the world or by whom they were committed. Due to conflicts with the European Court of Human Rights, Belgium amended the law in 2003 in order to reduce its scope."
I believe that the above sentence is POV, and unless anyone objects I'd like to remove it. There is absolutely no objective link between the universal jurisdiction law of 1993 and any form of Belgian colonialism that may have ever existed. And if there is, I'd like to ask the person who added that sentence to cite some sources for that.--Ganchelkas 13:12, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
The sentence is not only POV, it's also wrong. Universal jurisdiction did not exist in Belgian law before 1993, and has nothing to do with Belgian colonialism. Furthermore, the law was not amended "due to conflicts with the European Court of Human Rights" but due to conflicts with Belgium's transatlantic ally - and now some POV from my side - that were surely not motivated by human rights concerns. I'll delete the paragraph. MaartenVidal 19:31, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
