July 2, 2026
According to Jamaican officials, the petition asks the monarch questions regarding whether Britain has a legal obligation to provide reparations for slavery.
Jamaica will send a government delegation to the United Kingdom on Sept. 6 to formally present a slavery reparations petition to King Charles III, seeking legal clarification on Britain’s responsibility for the transatlantic slave trade and its lasting impact on the Caribbean, The Guardian reports.
According to Jamaican officials, the petition asks the monarch, in his capacity as Jamaica’s head of state, to refer questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council regarding whether Britain has a legal obligation to provide reparations for slavery. The effort is backed by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and follows the release of the CARICOM Reparations Commission‘s updated reparations manifesto in June 2026.
Later this year, Jamaica will take the case for reparations directly to King Charles, lodging a formal petition.
It is getting harder and harder for British institutions to maintain their favoured tactic of simply ignoring calls for repair.https://t.co/zJJGqCYpze
— Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (@BellRibeiroAddy) July 1, 2026
Britain has consistently rejected calls for slavery reparations, maintaining that it does not support financial compensation for the institution of slavery while acknowledging its historical role in the transatlantic slave trade.
Speaking before Jamaica’s Parliament on June 30, 2026, Culture Minister Olivia Grange said Sept. 6 was selected because it marks the anniversary of the 1781 departure of the Zong slave ship from West Africa.
“We intend to petition King Charles on September 6 — a historic day,” Grange said according to the outlet. “On this date in 1781, the Zong slave ship departed West Africa for Jamaica with 442 enslaved Africans.”
Grange said approximately 140 enslaved Africans were thrown overboard during the voyage before the ship arrived in Jamaica on Dec. 21, 1781, an event historians widely recognize as one of the most infamous atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade.
The petition also cites Britain’s compensation of slave owners following emancipation in 1834, while formerly enslaved Africans received no financial restitution and were instead required to complete a period of unpaid apprenticeship. Grange said Britain paid £20 million to compensate enslavers through a government-backed loan that was not fully repaid until 2015.
Laleta Davis Mattis, chair of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations, called the petition “a significant milestone in our long pursuit of reparatory justice,” while crediting Jamaican and British legal experts with developing the initiative.
Deputy Chair Bert Samuels said the country’s legal position has been strengthened by the United Nations General Assembly’s March 25, 2026, resolution recognizing the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans as a crime against humanity.
“We have learned from the 300-year struggle for freedom itself,” Samuels said. “People who have been tied down for three centuries into slavery must have felt hopeless at times. So we are used to a struggle that seems hopeless at times.”
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