Jamaica Petitions King Charles Over Slavery Reparations
Jamaica Petitions King Charles Over Slavery Reparations
The News
Jamaica is petitioning King Charles III to get a legal ruling on whether Britain owes reparations for slavery, its delegation said as a visit to London began Monday.
The petition asks the king — Jamaica's head of state — to refer three questions on the transatlantic slave trade to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the London-based body that is Jamaica's highest court of appeal.
The Jamaican delegation says it is the first time a British Commonwealth state has used this legal route "for the cause of reparatory justice," according to Al Jazeera.
The Three Questions
Whether the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was legal under English common law; whether it violated international law; and whether the UK has a legal obligation to provide a remedy for the harm slavery caused.
Timeline
British merchants enslave and forcibly transport between 600,000 and 1 million Africans to Jamaica.
Britain abolishes slavery. Under the Judicial Committee Act of the same year, the monarch is given authority to refer legal matters to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for an advisory opinion — the mechanism Jamaica is now invoking.
The UK pays slave owners $27 million in compensation, an amount equal to 40 percent of the Treasury's annual income, financing it with large loans.
Britain finishes paying off the debt taken on to compensate slave owners.
Jamaica's delegation, led by Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Minister Olivia Grange, arrives in London and says it will file the petition to the king.
Reactions
Grange declined to say whether Jamaica is asking Britain to pay. "We want the answers," she said. "Once we get the answers, or once we get a response to those questions, then the next steps will be determined."
Buckingham Palace confirmed it was aware of the move. "We understand the Jamaican government is seeking a petition to be heard before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council," a palace spokesman said. The palace acknowledged the king's constitutional role as Jamaica's head of state but said he has no role in deciding the substance of the claim.
Jamaica's Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport said the delegation is traveling "to advance Jamaica's push for reparations for the African ancestors who suffered under hundreds of years of enslavement."
What's Next
The petition has to be filed and then accepted before the Privy Council's judicial committee can take up the questions; Grange said Jamaica's next steps depend on the answers it gets.
The delegation is also meeting with the British Museum to discuss the repatriation of cultural artefacts taken from Jamaica.
More
The Jamaican government estimates the country is owed about $10 billion. Britain has repeatedly refused to pay for historical slavery.
The Privy Council route matters because it sidesteps the political question: rather than asking London for money, Jamaica is asking Britain's own courts whether the law required a remedy in the first place. An advisory opinion is not a damages award, but a finding against the UK would reset every reparations argument that follows — including the one running in American politics.
Poll
Should Britain pay reparations for slavery in Jamaica?
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