By Sam Tobin
LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The Jamaican government on Monday formally asked King Charles to seek legal advice on whether Britain should pay reparations for slavery, with the country’s culture minister saying she is “encouraged” by the engagement of Buckingham Palace so far.
Olivia Grange is leading a Jamaican delegation in London which filed a petition asking Charles to refer three questions about transatlantic slavery to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC).
Jamaica wants the JCPC, the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth nations, to consider whether the transport of enslaved Africans to Jamaica and their enslavement was ever lawful and whether Britain is legally obliged to provide a reparatory remedy.
Charles – who remains Jamaica’s head of state, though the country has taken steps towards removing him from that role – has previously expressed deep sorrow over slavery in a speech to Commonwealth leaders in 2022.
Britain, like other former colonial powers, has so far rejected demands for reparations, though Grange said she saw promise in how Buckingham Palace had helped with the process of filing Jamaica’s petition.
“We’re not pre-empting the process, but we are encouraged,” she told Reuters, shortly before the petition was formally filed.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Charles “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”.
REPARATIONS SOUGHT TO ADDRESS SLAVERY’S LEGACY
At least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and sold into slavery from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Advocates have long called for reparations to address the ongoing legacy of slavery, such as economic underdevelopment and social inequality.
“There’s so much that has impacted negatively on Jamaica as a result of the enslavement of our ancestors,” Grange said. “We feel it is important that going forward there is some support that would help us to build back stronger.”
Jamaica’s petition, which is endorsed by the Caribbean Community and Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, comes after a U.N. committee last month said countries were legally obliged to consider reparations and take other measures for the transatlantic slave trade to address its enduring legacy.
Many European leaders, though, have opposed even talking about the issue and critics argue that today’s states and institutions should not be held responsible for slavery.
There has been a growing backlash towards the idea of reparations and Britain’s right-wing populist Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, in April proposed denying visas to people from countries seeking reparations, which include Jamaica.
Grange, however, said that momentum was building for the campaign: “There’s a global trend where there is more support for reparatory justice. There will always be some negative responses, but we stay focused.”
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Additional reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Alison Williams)
