Jamaica to take fight for slavery reparations to King Charles
By Catarina Demony
LONDON (Reuters) -Jamaica will ask King Charles to request legal advice from the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth nations, on the issue of slavery reparations.
Under the Judicial Committee Act of 1833, Charles, who remains Jamaica's head of state after the country gained independence from Britain in 1962, has the authority to refer matters to the council for consideration.
Hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans were shipped to Jamaica, and many scholars and advocates say the legacy of that period has resulted in or played a role in today's inequities.
Calls for reparations are longstanding and moves such as the appeal to Charles help to keep the topic in the public spotlight. A backlash against it has also been growing, and many of Europe's leaders have opposed even talking about it.
Jamaica's culture minister, Olivia Grange, said her government was seeking the council to consider whether the forced transport of enslaved Africans to Jamaica and their subsequent enslavement was lawful, and if it constituted a crime against humanity.
It is also calling on the council to examine whether Britain is "under an obligation to provide a remedy" to Jamaica, not only for slavery but also for its enduring consequences.
"We will be submitting a petition to His Majesty King Charles III to refer to the Privy Council a set of questions that we want answered within his current position as head of state of Jamaica," Grange said in the Jamaican parliament on Tuesday.
Nicola Diggle, an expert in Privy Council appeals at London law firm Blake Morgan, said the monarch could refer any matter to the council. Lower courts in countries such as Jamaica, where the council is the final court of appeal, can also refer cases.
However, it may decide the matter is unsuitable for its opinion.
The legal weight of the council's recommendations can vary. They could either be treated as a court judgment or non-enforceable legal opinions.
Charles expressed deep sorrow over slavery in a speech to Commonwealth leaders in 2022 but Britain, like other former colonial powers, has so far rejected demands for reparations.
The petition comes after Jamaica's government presented a bill in December last year to ditch the king as head of state.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
17 minutes ago
- New York Times
Kneecap Brings Pro-Palestinian Politics Back Onstage at Glastonbury
About 20 minutes into Kneecap's set at the Glastonbury music festival on Saturday, the Irish-language rap group stopped the show to discuss a topic that has made it one of Britain's most talked about — and infamous — pop acts. 'I don't have to lecture you people,' Mo Chara, one of the band's rappers, told tens of thousands of onlookers at the festival. 'Israel are war criminals,' he said. He then led the crowd in a chant of 'Free, free, Palestine.' Kneecap's set at Britain's largest music festival on Saturday was so popular that organizers had to shut access to the arena to stop overcrowding. But it came after two head-spinning months for the group. In April, Kneecap lost its U.S. visa sponsor after making anti-Israel statements at Coachella. The police in Britain then charged Mo Chara with a terrorism offense for displaying the flag of Hezbollah, the militant group based in Lebanon, onstage at a London show. Several festivals and venues dropped the band from their lineups. The Board of Deputies of British Jews wrote to Glastonbury urging it not to give Kneecap a platform that could make the band's views appear acceptable, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week that it was 'not appropriate' for Kneecap to play at the festival, or for the BBC to broadcast the performance. (The BBC, which provides live coverage from Glastonbury, did not broadcast Kneecap's set, and the festival press office did not respond to a request for comment.) Yet unlike lawmakers, Jewish groups and prosecutors, few in the crowd on Saturday appeared to have concerns about the band or its politics. Amy Pepper, 46, a health worker from Northern Ireland, said the band was 'really inspirational, particularly for my kids.' She had seen Kneecap live several times before, she said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
27 minutes ago
- Forbes
British Politicians Call Upon Pope Leo XIV To Stand Up For Jimmy Lai
Vatican, June 21, 2025. Pope Leo XIV meets with political leaders during the Jubilee of Governments ... More at the Apostolic Palace on June 21, 2025, in Vatican City, Vatican. Greeting the members of the delegations coming from 68 different countries, Pope Leo said politics has rightly been defined as 'the highest form of charity.' (Photo credit: Elisabetta Trevisan - Vatican Media via) On June 21, 2025, Alex Sobel MP, Member of the U.K. Parliament, delivered a letter to Pope Leo XIV after a special audience for members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in the Hall of Benediction, the Vatican, calling upon him to stand up for Jimmy Lai. Jimmy Lai, a British citizen aged 77, and a devout and practicing Catholic, has been imprisoned by Hong Kong authorities since December 2020. The audience followed the Second Parliamentary Conference on Interfaith Dialogue: Strengthening trust and embracing hope for our common future. The conference, jointly organized by the IPU and the Parliament of Italy, brought together hundreds of MPs, including Speakers, as well as religious leaders, UN officials, civil society representatives, and international experts from close to 100 countries, responding to the motto of the Jubilee Year to be 'pilgrims of hope' amid a climate of growing conflict, polarization and the weaponization of religion. During the audience, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of human rights for everyone: 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, approved and proclaimed by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, is now part of humanity's cultural heritage. That text, which is always relevant, can contribute greatly to placing the human person, in his or her inviolable integrity, at the foundation of the quest for truth, thus restoring dignity to those who do not feel respected in their inmost being and in the dictates of their conscience.' After the audience, Pope Leo XIV met many of the attendees. Alex Sobel MP was among those able to meet the Pope and delivered a letter signed by several Parliamentarians from the U.K., raising the dire situation of Jimmy Lai. Among the signatories of the letters were two Politicians sanctioned by China for their advocacy on the situation of human rights in China and Hong Kong - Lord Alton of Liverpool and Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws LT KC, and the last Governor of Hong Kong - the Rt Hon. the Lord Patten of Barnes KG CH. As the letter stressed, Jimmy Lai, 'Despite being vilified in the Hong Kong media and relentlessly pursued by hostile authorities with vexatious charges, he is guilty as proven on one simple charge: speaking up for democracy and human rights for all and speaking against Chinese Communist Party (CCP) oppression and their suppression of human rights - the values which St John Paul II fought for in Poland during the communist tyranny there.' Jimmy Lai has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for over 1,600 days now and faces life imprisonment for simply standing by his principles. Given his age and the condition of his health, he may not live for many more years. In prison, those few remaining years will mean pain and suffering. In addition to being placed in solitary confinement (despite posing no threat to anyone), an act that of itself heightens the risk to his life, Jimmy Lai, a man of deep Catholic faith, has been frequently denied Holy Communion and has not been permitted to attend Mass services held in the prison. There is no reasonable justification for this denial, and it amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment. The letter calls upon Pope Leo XIV to 'raise the case of Jimmy Lai with the Chinese authorities and to seek spiritual assistance for him. He should be allowed to see a priest, to receive Holy Communion, and to attend Mass without any further obstruction.' British Parliamentarians further asked for Pope Leo XIV to meet with Jimmy's son, Sebastien Lai, to give him a blessing and the encouragement to continue his fight for the freedom of his father. Pope Leo XIV is yet to respond to the letter and the calls for restoring the human dignity that Jimmy Lai is deprived of every single day, with the inhumane treatment in prison - the human dignity that Pope Leo XIV has been raising in the recent audience. In the meantime, Jimmy Lai continues to be imprisoned, mostly in isolation, while awaiting the outcome of a long-delayed trial for sedition and conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the Beijing-imposed controversial National Security Law.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
PM ‘incapable of sticking to a decision' after welfare U-turn
The Prime Minister is 'incapable of sticking to a decision' after he made a major U-turn on welfare reforms in the face of a backbench rebellion, Kemi Badenoch will say. The reforms would only have made 'modest reductions to the ballooning welfare bill', but Sir Keir Starmer was 'too weak to hold the line', the Conservative Party leader is expected to say. In a speech to the Local Government Association Annual Conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, Ms Badenoch will criticise Sir Keir for creating a 'punishing welfare trap that shuts people out of going back to work'. 'This week, the Prime Minister backed down on limited reforms that would have made modest reductions to the ballooning welfare bill,' she will say. 'He was too weak to hold the line. 'The result? A punishing welfare trap that shuts people out of going back to work. 'Right now, Labour are making everything worse. And Keir Starmer sums up exactly what's wrong with politics today. 'Now that his backbenchers smell blood, there's almost certainly another climb down on the two-child benefit cap in the offing. 'Labour told us 'the adults were back in charge', but this is actually amateur hour. The Prime Minister is incapable of sticking to a decision. 'If he can't make relatively small savings to a benefits bill that is set to exceed £100 billion by 2030, how can we expect him to meet his promised 5% defence spending, or ever take the tough decisions necessary to bring down the national debt?' On Saturday, the Prime Minister told the Welsh Labour conference the 'broken' welfare system must be fixed 'in a Labour way'. In a speech to the Welsh Labour conference, he said: 'We cannot take away the safety net that vulnerable people rely on, and we won't, but we also can't let it become a snare for those who can and want to work,' the Prime Minister said. 'Everyone agrees that our welfare system is broken: failing people every day, a generation of young people written off for good and the cost spiralling out of control. 'Fixing it is a moral imperative, but we need to do it in a Labour way.'
