King Charles Declines Personal Receipt of Jamaica Slavery Reparations Petition

King Charles III will not personally receive a petition from Jamaica requesting £7.6 billion in slavery reparations while he is on a summer break at Balmoral.

A Jamaican delegation arrived in London on Monday with the petition, which asks King Charles to refer three questions to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), the country's highest court. The questions concern whether the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was legal under English law, whether it broke international law, and whether Britain has a legal duty to provide redress.

Jamaican culture minister Olivia Grange, leading the delegation, said she is encouraged by Buckingham Palace's engagement in the process of filing the petition. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson stated that Charles 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.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham's spokesperson, however, said the "UK does not and will not pay reparations," while acknowledging the transatlantic slave trade was abhorrent. Graham Smith, CEO of anti-monarchy campaign group Republic, called the King's refusal to meet unacceptable. Jamaica, an independent nation since 1962, retained the British monarch as its head of state and is currently working to become a republic.

The country estimates it is owed about $10 billion. The petition invokes the Judicial Committee Act of 1833, which permits the monarch to send matters of constitutional weight to the Privy Council for an advisory opinion. The next steps will be determined once a response to the questions is received.