Buckingham Palace Comments as the Jamaican Government Seeks to File Slavery Reparations Petition
Buckingham Palace issued a statement today following reports that Jamaican officials are seeking to lodge a petition via King Charles over slavery reparations. Members of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations arrived in London over the weekend and reports revealed that they intended to ask the King to refer questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council over the transatlantic slave trade.
“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 today. “The process for seeking a petition is to lodge it with the Judicial Committee so that referral under section four of the 1833 Act can be considered. We also understand the Jamaican representatives will be received by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for bilateral discussions.”
King Charles is Head of State in both the UK and Jamaica. Jamaican politicians have taken steps to remove the British monarch as the country’s head of state, but the process has yet to happen. Currently, King Charles is a politically neutral figurehead in Jamaica, the same role he has in Britain.
The move by Jamaican officials is the latest in a long-running campaign by Caribbean and African nations calling for reparations from countries that were enriched by the transatlantic slave trade. In March this year, the UN General Assembly voted to recognize the enslavement of Africans as “the gravest crime against humanity.” Successive UK Governments have repeatedly said they will not pay reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade.
T&C understands that Buckingham Palace has been working closely with Jamaica’s Governor General—the King’s representative in the country—to ensure the petition is correctly lodged. It will not be handed to the King, who is in Scotland right now anyway, but to the Registrar of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
On the issue of the transatlantic slave trade, the Palace added, “His Majesty has on many occasions expressed his personal and wholehearted commitment to promoting greater understanding around the issue of slavery and finding ways to address historic wrongs for the benefit of communities today. As he stated in a landmark speech to Commonwealth Leaders: ‘I understand, from listening to people across the Commonwealth, how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate…none of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts to learning its lessons and to finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure’.”
Per the Guardian newspaper, this petition was first announced last year with the aim of getting the King to use his authority to ask questions described as critical to progressing Jamaica’s reparations claims.
Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy has reported on the British Royal Family since 2010. She has interviewed Prince Harry and has travelled the world covering several royal tours. She is a frequent contributor to Good Morning America. Victoria authored Town & Country book The Queen: A Life in Pictures, released in 2021.