Jamaican delegation defends legal basis of slavery reparations petition to King Charles
A Jamaican delegation led by culture minister Olivia Grange has delivered a petition to King Charles asking the privy council to assess Britain's legal responsibility for slavery. The UK government has reiterated it will not pay reparations.
A high-level Jamaican delegation has travelled to London to submit a petition to King Charles seeking legal clarity on reparations for slavery. The visit opened with a service at a Brixton Baptist church marking the anniversary of the 1781 Zong massacre, when more than 100 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard so the ship's owners could claim insurance money.
The petition, backed by leaders of other Caribbean nations, was submitted by culture minister Olivia Grange along with lawyers and members of Jamaica's national council on reparations. It asks the king, who remains Jamaica's head of state, to request the privy council's legal guidance on three questions: whether the forced transport 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's lasting effects.
Legal dispute
Former privy council member Lord Sumption called the legal strategy "nonsense," arguing the matter was one of morality and politics rather than law. Jamaican legal experts, including Edward Fitzgerald and Harj Narulla, defend the petition's legal basis, pointing to a rarely used provision of the Judicial Committee Act 1833 that allows the king to refer constitutional questions to the privy council.
The delegation met diaspora communities, UK politicians, church leaders and the British Museum, from which Jamaica is seeking the return of artefacts. A meeting with the king himself was never planned — minister Grange said both the palace and the privy council had confirmed that filing the petition by post and email was the correct process.
Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said Jamaica was fully within its rights under English law to petition the monarch. A spokesperson for prime minister Andy Burnham reiterated the UK government's long-standing position that it does not and will not pay reparations. The issue could resurface at the upcoming Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Antigua, which the king is due to attend.
