Olivia Grange
KINGSTON--A Jamaican delegation has travelled to Britain to submit a landmark petition asking King Charles III, Jamaica’s head of state, to refer key questions about slavery and reparations to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Culture Minister Olivia Grange arrived in London with members of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations ahead of the petition’s planned submission on Monday, September 7, 2026.
The petition asks whether the forced transportation of Africans to Jamaica was lawful, whether the practice constituted a crime against humanity and whether Britain has an obligation to provide restitution to Jamaica for slavery and its continuing consequences.
The Judicial Committee serves as the final court of appeal for British overseas territories and several Commonwealth countries. The petition seeks legal advice from that body through the monarch’s referral authority rather than an immediate award or negotiated payment.
Grange said answers from the Privy Council were critical to advancing Jamaica’s claim. She argued that inherited systems associated with slavery still place Jamaica at an economic and social disadvantage, affecting education, health and the country’s capacity to respond to challenges such as the climate crisis.
Jamaica established a national reparations mechanism in 2009, making it the first Caribbean country to do so, according to Grange. The planned petition was announced in June 2025.
The visit forms part of a wider Caribbean and international push for reparatory justice. In March 2026, 123 countries supported a United Nations resolution describing chattel slavery as the gravest crime against humanity. Britain abstained from that vote. In June 2026, Caribbean advocates launched a manifesto setting out the moral, ethical and legal case for reparations.
In August 2026, a UN committee said states were legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and measures addressing continuing racial discrimination.
Ralph Gonsalves, the former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines and an adviser to the Repair Campaign, described Jamaica’s action as a significant point in the regional campaign.
He said the underdevelopment experienced by Caribbean societies could be traced to Indigenous genocide and the enslavement of Africans, which enriched European states.
Further advocacy is planned at a Caribbean reparations conference in Barbados in September 2026, the United Nations General Assembly during September 2026 and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua in November 2026. King Charles is scheduled to attend the November gathering.
The Jamaican delegation also held a remembrance church service in Brixton on Sunday, September 6, 2026. Meetings with British parliamentarians and a visit to the British Museum to discuss the repatriation of Jamaican artefacts are also on its programme.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the King had repeatedly expressed a personal commitment to improving understanding of slavery and addressing historic wrongs for the benefit of communities. The statement did not indicate how the palace would respond to the petition. ~The Guardian~
