A landmark petition is to be handed to King Charles by Jamaica over slavery reparations, aiming to confront historical crimes that still disadvantage former British colonies, according to Olvia Grange, the nation’s culture minister.
The petition will be lodged with Charles, Jamaica’s head of state, on Monday.
It wants Charles to ask whether the forced transport of Africans to Jamaica was lawful, if it constituted a crime against humanity, and whether Britain is under an obligation to provide restitution to Jamaica for slavery and its enduring consequences.
Grange said that these questions and a privy council response were critical to progressing the country’s reparations claims.
Between the 15th and 19th centuries, more than 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported to the Americas and sold into slavery.
Grange said that Jamaica had been the first Caribbean nation to create a national reparations mechanism, establishing it in 2009.
Read more here.
