Ibrahim Ag Idbaltanat, a descendent of slaves himself, born to a black Tuareg family in northeastern Mali, has been championing human rights and equity since the late 1970s, after becoming aware of injustices against families of slave descent by traditional slave masters, including physical violence and the confiscation of both land and herds of cattle.

FORBES: A Son of Slaves Still Fights For Human Rights

Claimants for compensation will have to prove before a judge that they really owned the land they claim, and that it was unjustly seized (a flexible concept: a judge might accept that the late dictator Anastasio Somoza had indeed awarded himself legal title to some land he had got hold of, but that its confiscation after he was overthrown in 1979 was fair enough).

ECONOMIST: Nicaragua