Jamaica to Renew Slavery Reparations Demand During UK Visit

Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1353 EAT on Monday 7 September 2026

A Jamaican delegation visiting the United Kingdom has said it will file a petition addressed to King Charles III, seeking legal guidance on the issue of slavery reparations.

The delegation said the move would mark the first time a British Commonwealth state has used such a legal route “for the cause of reparatory justice”.

The delegation’s visit to London begins on Monday.

Jamaica’s Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport said its minister, Olivia Grange, will lead the delegation “to advance Jamaica’s push for reparations for the African ancestors who suffered under hundreds of years of enslavement”.

The ministry said the delegation will also meet officials at the British Museum to discuss “the repatriation of cultural artefacts taken from Jamaica”.

The petition will ask King Charles III, Jamaica’s head of state, to refer three questions concerning the transatlantic slave trade to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Caribbean island’s highest court of appeal, which is based in London.

Under the Judicial Committee Act of 1833, the British monarch has the authority to refer legal questions to the court for an advisory opinion.

The questions will 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.

“We want the answers. Once we get the answers, or once we get a response to those questions, then the next steps will be determined,” she said.

“We understand the Jamaican government is seeking a petition to be heard before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said in response to Jamaica’s inquiry.

The palace acknowledged King Charles III’s constitutional role in the petition as Jamaica’s head of state but said he had no role in determining the substance of the claim.

British merchants enslaved and forcibly transported between 600,000 and one million Africans to Jamaica between the 17th century and the early 19th century.

Shortly after abolishing slavery in 1833, the UK paid slave owners £20 million in compensation, equivalent to about 40 percent of the Treasury’s annual income at the time. To raise the money, the government took out substantial loans, which were finally paid off in 2015.

The Jamaican government estimates that the country is owed about $10 billion in reparations. However, the UK has repeatedly rejected calls to pay compensation for historical slavery.

-Aljazeera

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