Jamaica's Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia A. Grange (petition in hand) said her country has filed reparations petition on His Majesty King Charles III. Photo: Facebook

(L-R) Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) and Acting Premier Hon Julian Fraser RA (R3) are in support of Jamaica presenting King Charles III with its reparations petition. Photo: GIS

Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon Olivia A. Grange, arrived in the United Kingdom on the weekend along with members of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations where the country's reparations petition will be presented to King Charles III. Photo: PA/Getty Images

The petition, according to The Guardian, asks the monarch to use his authority to request legal advice from the judicial committee of the London-based Privy Council, the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth countries.

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.

Jamaica’s Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon Olivia A. Grange, arrived in the United Kingdom on the weekend along with members of Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations.

In an interview with The Guardian, she said Jamaicans are resilient people, citing the country’s ability to bounce back from Hurricane Melisa in 2025; however, she said there is still a lot of work to be done. 

“You can imagine if we did not have those inherited problems, the legacy that came out of slavery, how much better we would have been able to do so.”

Jamaica is right- Hon Fraser

Acting Premier Hon Julian Fraser RA (R3) told Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, that he supports Jamaica’s decision. 

“Who among us, including myself, can dare argue or even question Jamaica, the undisputed leader in the Region when it comes to liberation and standing up to the British?”

He said it was 64 years ago that Jamaica was the first in the English-speaking Caribbean to stand up to the British. “[They] got their independence, and here we are still sucking salt. Jamaica is right, and I applaud them for it.”

Hopeful the UK will recognise the necessity of this process- Premier Wheatley 

Premier and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) told our news centre, “As a fellow advocate of the reparations movement, I applaud Jamaica's bold step of personally delivering Jamaica's reparations petition to King Charles.”

Reparations, he said, are not simply a matter of money; it is about acknowledging a historic wrong and repairing the relationship between the UK and Jamaica. 

“I am hopeful that the UK monarch, government, and people will recognise the necessity of this process of repair and respond favourably,” Premier Wheatley said.