British monarch grants Jamaican reparations claim to move forward

Britain’s King Charles has referred a landmark slavery reparations petition from Jamaica to the kingdom’s second-highest court for legal advice, a move that has been welcomed by the former Caribbean colony.

Jamaica’s Culture Minister Olivia Grange announced the development before the country’s parliament on September 22, weeks after travelling to London to formally lodge the petition, as British media reports.

Grange told Jamaica’s MPs that the monarch had confirmed the legal questions raised by the petition had been referred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the London-based body that serves as the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and several Commonwealth jurisdictions.

The petition asks for guidance on three questions: whether the forced transport of Africans to Jamaica during Crown colonial rule from 1655 to 1962 was lawful; whether it constituted a crime against humanity; and whether Britain has an obligation to provide restitution for slavery and its enduring consequences.

“Indeed we went fearless and boldly into this chapter when we petitioned the king on Monday, September 7, 2026 – one day after the 245th anniversary of the commemoration of the Zong massacre, an event that captures the barbarity of chattel enslavement,” Grange said in parliament.

“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,” she said, before adding “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.”

The move was made under the UK’s Judicial Committee Act 1833, which gives the monarch a statutory power to refer questions of a legal or constitutional nature to the Privy Council when they cannot be resolved through ordinary courts. Jamaica used the rarely invoked mechanism for its petition.

Grange also explained to Parliament why Jamaica had not pursued the matter through the International Court of Justice.

“The United Kingdom has placed specific reservations on the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ which prevent the Court from adjudicating on disputes between the United Kingdom and the government of any other country which is or has been a Member of the Commonwealth”.

An opinion from the Privy Council would not require the UK government to pay reparations. According to The Guardian's reporting, Jamaican officials, however, believe that such an opinion could influence future negotiations and legal options, as well as establish a precedent for other Commonwealth countries seeking reparations.

During her visit to London earlier this month, Grange also held meetings with several cultural institutions, including the British Museum, from which Jamaica is seeking the return of artefacts taken during the colonial period.

The announcement came shortly after the Caricom Regional Conference on Reparations in Barbados, where officials said Caribbean countries were developing a multi-pronged “action plan” that includes legal options for pushing the UK toward negotiations over a long-running slavery reparations claim.

Jamaica gained political independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, while retaining the British monarch as head of state. The country removed the monarch as head of state in 2021, and King Charles, who was then Prince of Wales, personally attended the ceremony marking the milestone.

By Nazrin Sadigova