King Charles refers Jamaica’s slavery reparations petition to Privy Council
Key Points(5)
- King Charles III has referred Jamaica’s petition seeking legal advice on slavery and reparations to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Culture Minister Olivia Grange told Parliament on Tuesday.
- Grange said the King referred the petition, filed on behalf of the Jamaican people on Sept.
- 7, to the Judicial Committee, which serves as Jamaica’s highest court of appeal.
- “The King could have ignored us.
- The King could have delayed responding to us.
King Charles III has referred Jamaica’s petition seeking legal advice on slavery and reparations to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Culture Minister Olivia Grange told Parliament on Tuesday.
Grange said the King referred the petition, filed on behalf of the Jamaican people on Sept. 7, to the Judicial Committee, which serves as Jamaica’s highest court of appeal.
“The King could have ignored us. The King could have delayed responding to us. The King could have made a decision not to refer the questions to the Privy Council, or he could make a decision to refer the questions,” Grange said.
“Mr. Speaker, Honourable Prime Minister, colleagues, King Charles has referred the petition, filed on the 7th of September 2026, on behalf of the people of Jamaica, to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council,” she said.
Grange described the development as “a really big deal.”
The petition asks the King, as Jamaica’s head of state, to refer three legal questions to the Privy Council for advice.
The questions concern whether the forced transportation and enslavement of Africans in Jamaica under British rule were lawful, whether the actions violated international law, and whether the United Kingdom has a legal obligation to provide a remedy for the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica and its continuing consequences.
The Jamaican government announced in 2025 that it planned to use the legal process to seek advice from the Privy Council on the questions.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in remarks delivered to the High-Level Global Advisory Council on Reparatory Justice last week that the Attorney General, acting on behalf of the Jamaican people, submitted the petition to the King on Sept. 7. He described it as a request for legal guidance rather than a claim seeking a specific amount of compensation.
Grange said Jamaica is now awaiting directions from the Privy Council on the next steps.
She said the Attorney General is preparing to handle the case.
“We look forward to the opportunity to argue our case, as we believe we have the best arguments,” Grange said.
The minister said Cabinet and Parliament will be updated as the matter progresses.
Earlier this month, Grange led a Jamaican delegation to the United Kingdom to formally lodge the petition. The delegation included lawyers and members of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations and met with members of the Jamaican diaspora, British lawmakers, church leaders and cultural institutions.
The reparations initiative forms part of Jamaica’s broader efforts to address the legacy of slavery and seek reparatory justice.
The Privy Council’s Judicial Committee is based in London and hears appeals from several Commonwealth jurisdictions, including Jamaica. Its role in Jamaica’s case will initially concern the legal questions referred to it through the petition.
