Jamaican delegation arrives in UK to present King Charles with slavery reparations petition
A Jamaican delegation has arrived in London to hand King Charles a petition on Monday seeking reparations for slavery. The petition asks the monarch to request a legal opinion on the lawfulness of the transatlantic slave trade and Britain's obligations to Jamaica.
A delegation from Jamaica, including members of the country's National Council on Reparations, has arrived in the UK to present King Charles III — who also serves as Jamaica's head of state — with a petition on slavery reparations on Monday. The initiative was confirmed by Jamaica's culture minister, Olivia Grange.
First announced in June last year, the petition calls on the monarch to use his authority to seek a legal opinion from the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the final court of appeal for several UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth nations. The delegation wants clarity on whether the forced transportation of Africans to Jamaica was lawful, whether it amounted to a crime against humanity, and whether Britain bears an obligation to provide restitution for slavery and its lasting effects.
Grange said the legacy of slavery continues to hold Jamaica back, shaping its education and health systems and limiting its capacity to tackle modern challenges such as the climate crisis. Jamaica became the first Caribbean nation to set up a national reparations mechanism, in 2009.
Ralph Gonsalves, former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines and a key figure behind the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission, said the region's ongoing underdevelopment traces back to colonisation and the enslavement of African people, from which European nations profited. The visit is seen as an important step ahead of a Caribbean reparations conference in Barbados, the UN general assembly session, and the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua in November, which King Charles is due to attend.
Global pressure is mounting on former colonial powers to formally recognise the slave trade as a crime. In March, 123 countries backed a UN resolution declaring slavery the gravest crime against humanity, while the UK abstained. During their visit, the delegation will also meet British MPs and visit the British Museum to discuss the return of Jamaican artefacts.
