{"id":762516,"date":"2026-09-07T04:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/762516\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T04:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T04:16:10","slug":"jamaica-to-file-slavery-reparations-petition-during-uk-visit-slavery-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/762516\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamaica to file slavery reparations petition during UK visit | Slavery News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Petition to King Charles questions the legality of slavery under English law and UK\u2019s responsibility for reparations.<\/p>\n

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Published On 7 Sep 20267 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

A Jamaican delegation to the United Kingdom has said it will file a petition addressed to King Charles III to seek legal guidance on the question of slavery reparations.<\/p>\n

This is the first time a British Commonwealth state will use this legal route \u201cfor the cause of reparatory justice\u201d, the Jamaican delegation said, as the visit to London kicks off Monday.<\/p>\n

Jamaica\u2019s Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport said its minister, Olivia Grange, will lead the delegation \u201cto advance Jamaica\u2019s push for reparations for the African ancestors who suffered under hundreds of years of enslavement\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ministry added that it will meet with the British Museum to discuss \u201cthe repatriation of cultural artefacts taken from Jamaica\u201d.<\/p>\n

The petition will ask the king, Jamaica\u2019s head of state, to answer three questions on the transatlantic slave trade to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Caribbean island\u2019s highest court of appeal based in London.<\/p>\n

Under the Judicial Committee Act of 1833, the UK monarch has the authority to refer legal matters to the court for an advisory opinion.<\/p>\n

The questions include: whether the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was legal under English common law, whether it violated international law, and whether the UK has a legal obligation to provide a remedy for the harm caused by slavery.<\/p>\n

\"Jamaica'sJamaica\u2019s Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Olivia Grange attends the AIPS and Laureus Press Celebration \u2018Champions in Sport for Good\u2019 during the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships at Casa Italia, Hotel Ellington, on August 20, 2009, in Berlin, Germany [Mark Dadswell\/Getty Images]<\/p>\n

Grange said she would not speculate on whether Jamaica was asking the UK to pay reparations for the slave trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the answers. Once we get the answers, or once we get a response to those questions, then the next steps will be determined,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the Jamaican government is seeking a petition to be heard before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,\u201d a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said in response to Jamaica\u2019s inquiry.<\/p>\n

The palace acknowledged the king\u2019s constitutional role in the petition as Jamaica\u2019s head of state but said he had no role in deciding the substance of the claim.<\/p>\n

British merchants enslaved and forcibly transported 600,000 to 1 million Africans to Jamaica between the 17th century and the early 19th century.<\/p>\n

Shortly after abolishing slavery in 1833, the UK paid slave owners $27m in compensation, amounting to 40 percent of the Treasury\u2019s annual income. To raise the cash, the government took out considerable loans, finally paying off its debts in 2015.<\/p>\n

The Jamaican government estimates that the country is owed about $10bn, but the UK has repeatedly refused to pay for historical slavery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Petition to King Charles questions the legality of slavery under English law and UK\u2019s responsibility for reparations. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[591,59,57,58,1293,937,20072,8911,50,229,9967,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-762516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-europe","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-history","tag-human-rights","tag-jamaica","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-slavery","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}