Jamaica to file slavery reparations petition during UK visit

Petition to King Charles questions the legality of slavery nether English instrumentality and UK’s work for reparations.

A Jamaican delegation to the United Kingdom has said it volition record a petition addressed to King Charles III to question ineligible guidance connected the question of slavery reparations.

This is the archetypal clip a British Commonwealth authorities volition usage this ineligible way “for the origin of reparatory justice”, the Jamaican delegation said, arsenic the sojourn to London kicks disconnected Monday.

Jamaica’s Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport said its minister, Olivia Grange, volition pb the delegation “to beforehand Jamaica’s propulsion for reparations for the African ancestors who suffered nether hundreds of years of enslavement”.

The ministry added that it volition conscionable with the British Museum to sermon “the repatriation of taste artefacts taken from Jamaica”.

The petition volition inquire the king, Jamaica’s caput of state, to reply 3 questions connected the transatlantic enslaved commercialized to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Caribbean island’s highest tribunal of entreaty based successful London.

Under the Judicial Committee Act of 1833, the UK monarch has the authorization to notation ineligible matters to the tribunal for an advisory opinion.

The questions include: whether the enslavement of Africans successful Jamaica was ineligible nether English communal law, whether it violated planetary law, and whether the UK has a ineligible work to supply a remedy for the harm caused by slavery.

Jamaica’s Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Olivia Grange attends the AIPS and Laureus Press Celebration ‘Champions successful Sport for Good’ during the 12th IAAF World Athletics Championships astatine Casa Italia, Hotel Ellington, connected August 20, 2009, successful Berlin, Germany [Mark Dadswell/Getty Images]

Grange said she would not speculate connected whether Jamaica was asking the UK to wage reparations for the enslaved trade.

“We privation the answers. Once we get the answers, oregon erstwhile we get a effect to those questions, past the adjacent steps volition beryllium determined,” she said.

“We recognize the Jamaican authorities is seeking a petition to beryllium heard earlier the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said successful effect to Jamaica’s inquiry.

The palace acknowledged the king’s law relation successful the petition arsenic Jamaica’s caput of authorities but said helium had nary relation successful deciding the substance of the claim.

British merchants enslaved and forcibly transported 600,000 to 1 cardinal Africans to Jamaica betwixt the 17th period and the aboriginal 19th century.

Shortly aft abolishing slavery successful 1833, the UK paid enslaved owners $27m successful compensation, amounting to 40 percent of the Treasury’s yearly income. To rise the cash, the authorities took retired sizeable loans, yet paying disconnected its debts successful 2015.

The Jamaican authorities estimates that the state is owed astir $10bn, but the UK has repeatedly refused to wage for humanities slavery.