Petition to King Charles questions the legality of slavery below English regulation and UK’s accountability for reparations.
Printed On 7 Sep 2026
A Jamaican delegation to the UK has stated it’s going to file a petition addressed to King Charles III to hunt authorized steering on the query of slavery reparations.
That is the primary time a British Commonwealth state will use this authorized route “for the reason for reparatory justice”, the Jamaican delegation stated, because the go to to London kicks off Monday.
Jamaica’s Ministry of Tradition, Gender, Leisure and Sport stated its minister, Olivia Grange, will lead the delegation “to advance Jamaica’s push for reparations for the African ancestors who suffered below a whole bunch of years of enslavement”.
The ministry added that it’s going to meet with the British Museum to debate “the repatriation of cultural artefacts taken from Jamaica”.
The petition will ask the king, Jamaica’s head of state, to reply three questions on the transatlantic slave commerce to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Caribbean island’s highest courtroom of enchantment based mostly in London.
Beneath the Judicial Committee Act of 1833, the UK monarch has the authority to refer authorized issues to the courtroom for an advisory opinion.
The questions embody: whether or not the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was authorized below English frequent regulation, whether or not it violated worldwide regulation, and whether or not the UK has a authorized obligation to supply a treatment for the hurt attributable to slavery.
![Jamaica's Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Olivia Grange attends the AIPS and Laureus Press Celebration 'Champions in Sport for Good' during day six of the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships at Casa Italia, Hotel Ellington on August 20, 2009 in Berlin, Germany. [Mark Dadswell/Getty Images]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/getty_6a9e04d05e-1788740816.jpg?resize=770%2C468&quality=80)
Grange stated she wouldn’t speculate on whether or not Jamaica was asking the UK to pay reparations for the slave commerce.
“We would like the solutions. As soon as we get the solutions, or as soon as we get a response to these questions, then the subsequent steps can be decided,” she stated.
“We perceive the Jamaican authorities is in search of a petition to be heard earlier than the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson stated in response to Jamaica’s inquiry.
The palace acknowledged the king’s constitutional function within the petition as Jamaica’s head of state however stated he had no function in deciding the substance of the declare.
British retailers enslaved and forcibly transported 600,000 to 1 million Africans to Jamaica between the seventeenth century and the early nineteenth century.
Shortly after abolishing slavery in 1833, the UK paid slave homeowners $27m in compensation, amounting to 40 % of the Treasury’s annual revenue. To boost the money, the federal government took out appreciable loans, lastly paying off its money owed in 2015.
The Jamaican authorities estimates that the nation is owed about $10bn, however the UK has repeatedly refused to pay for historic slavery.
