Jamaica to present King Charles III with slavery reparations petition
A Jamaican delegation that arrived in London, United Kingdom, is due to present King Charles III on Monday with a petition on slavery reparations. The document will be submitted to the monarch in his capacity as Jamaica’s head of state, The Guardian reports.
The delegation includes members of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparation and Culture Minister Olivia Grange. According to her, the legacy of slavery continues to deprive the country and its people of opportunities, affecting, in particular, the economic situation, education, healthcare and the ability to respond to modern challenges, including the climate crisis.
What the petition provides for
The petition was first announced in June last year. It asks the king to seek a legal opinion from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, the final court of appeal for British overseas territories and certain Commonwealth countries.
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The authors of the document seek an answer to whether the forced transportation of Africans to Jamaica was lawful, whether it constituted a crime against humanity, and whether the United Kingdom is obliged to provide Jamaica with compensation for slavery and its lasting consequences. Grange said that a legal opinion from the Privy Council would be important for advancing Jamaica’s reparations claims.
Visit programme
Grange noted that Jamaica established a national reparations mechanism in 2009. Former Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves, who helped establish the Caribbean Reparations Commission, said that European countries became wealthy as a result of the enslavement of Africans.
The visit programme also includes a memorial church service in the London district of Brixton, meetings with members of the UK Parliament, and a visit to the British Museum to discuss the return of Jamaican artefacts. At the end of September, representatives of the region plan advocacy work during the UN General Assembly, while in November a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government is due to take place in Antigua, which King Charles III is expected to attend.
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