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. This is the first time a British Commonwealth state will use this legal route “for the cause of reparatory justice”, the Jamaican delegation said, as the visit to London kicks off on Monday. King Charles is Jamaica’s head of state, as the country is yet to transition from a constitutional monarchy to a republic.
The Jamaican government estimates that the country is owed about $10bn, but the UK has repeatedly refused to pay for historical slavery. What is the latest petition all about, and how will the UK respond? Jamaica’s relations with the UK stem back to 1655 when it became an English colony.
Hundreds of thousands of enslaved African people toiled in Jamaica under more than 300 years of British rule and faced brutal conditions. In August 1962, after Jamaica became independent, it established diplomatic ties with the UK and also became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, an international political association of 56 member countries made up of former British colonies. The UK and Jamaica are also major trade partners, with UK exports to Jamaica reaching about $222m in 2025 and UK imports from Jamaica reaching about $76m.
While Jamaica has been independent since 1962, it has continued to recognise the British monarch as its head of state. But in recent years, calls to ditch the British king as Jamaica’s head of state have grown. In March 2022, Jamaican activists, as well as prominent professors, politicians and other leaders, rejected a visit by the duke and duchess of Cambridge, calling on the United Kingdom to apologise and pay reparations for hundreds of years of slavery.
In an open letter published before the British royal couple’s arrival, 100 Jamaican leaders had said they saw “no reason to celebrate” the Queen’s coronation “because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind”. In December 2024, the Jamaican government also tabled a constitutional amendment bill in parliament to replace the British king as the head of state. In June last year, Jamaica formally raised a petition addressed to the British monarch seeking slavery reparations.
On Monday, Jamaica’s Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport said its minister, Olivia Grange, is expected to lead the country’s delegation “to advance Jamaica’s push for reparations for the African ancestors who suffered under hundreds of years of enslavement” in London. The ministry added that it would meet with the British Museum to discuss “the repatriation of cultural artefacts taken from Jamaica”. The petition will ask the king, Jamaica’s head of state, to answer three questions on the transatlantic slave trade to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Caribbean island’s highest court of appeal based in London.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
