King Charles Declines To Meet With Jamaican Delegation as Caribbean Nation Petitions for Slavery Reparations

A delegation from Jamaica traveled to Britain to file a slavery reparations petition with King Charles III, but the monarch will reportedly not be meeting with the representatives. On Monday, a delegation from Jamaica filed a petition, asking King Charles to send questions about slavery, and whether Britain has a responsibility to pay reparations, to the final court of appeal for the United Kingdom’s overseas territories, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for an advisory opinion. The petition asks whether the forced transportation of African people to Jamaica and their enslavement was legal under English common law, whether the slave trade was a crime against humanity for which Britain bears responsibility, and whether Britain has an obligation to “provide a remedy” to the descendants of enslaved individuals. There was some speculation that the delegation would meet with King Charles. However, the Daily Mail reported that the monarch is in Scotland and the palace did not find an in-person meeting to be practical. The process for Jamaica to file its petition relies on an 1833 law that established the judicial committee of the privy council. The committee retained its role as the final court of appeal for countries that maintained their legal connection to the U.K. after World War II when it became the Commonwealth of independent nations. Jamaica’s culture minister, Olivia Grange, told reporters on Monday that the petition is not a formal demand for payment. She said that “once we get the answers” to the three questions “the next steps will be determined.” Ms. Grange noted that in 1833 the British government paid slave owners roughly $27 million when slavery was abolished, which required the government to take out loans that were not paid off until 2015. “The question really should be: if in modern times we’re still paying back the slave masters for the property that was our people, our ancestors, for property that was because of the abolition of slavery, then why shouldn’t we be pursuing some remedy at this time?” Ms. Grange asked. The Jamaican government asserts that it is owed roughly $10 billion in reparations. A palace spokesman said in a statement to the BBC, “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.”The spokesman said that Buckingham Palace had worked with the governor-general of Jamaica to make sure the petition is “properly lodged.”In a 2024 speech, King Charles did not endorse reparations, but he committed to learning from the lessons of the past and “finding creative ways to right inequalities that endure.”Britain’s government has repeatedly expressed opposition to monetary reparations. In March, the U.K. voted against a United Nations resolution that called the slave trade the “gravest crime against humanity” and called for reparations. In a statement the U.K. said it is “firmly of the view that we must not create a hierarchy of historical atrocities.” It also raised concerns about retroactively applying international law. “There is equally no duty to provide reparation for historical acts that were not, at the time those acts were committed, violations of international law,” the statement added. And on Monday, a spokesman for Prime Minister Andy Burnham told GB News, “Our position on reparation is clear. The UK does not and will not pay reparations.”“The transatlantic slave trade was abhorrent, and of course it’s right that we acknowledge the wrongs of the past. But we continue to face forward and work with other countries on current shared challenges,” the spokesman added. While the reparations push may not make it very far with the British government, it may reignite the efforts in Jamaica to remove King Charles as the country’s head of state. In December 2024, the government of Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, introduced a bill to remove King Charles. The legislation has been tabled. If it is passed, it would have to be ratified by a referendum. Some polls have shown a growing movement to remove King Charles as the head of state as Britain has rebuffed calls for reparations. A 2022 poll conducted by a pollster, Don Anderson, found that 56 percent of Jamaican respondents said they supported the move, up from 40 percent the previous decade.

King Charles Declines To Meet With Jamaican Delegation as Caribbean Nation Petitions for Slavery Reparations

King Charles Declines To Meet With Jamaican Delegation as Caribbean Nation Petitions for Slavery Reparations

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