London, 9 September 2026 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange has issued a statement to address misinformation surrounding the filing of a petition to His Majesty King Charles.

The historic reparations petition was filed on Monday (September 7).

Minister Grange delivered the statement at a meeting with members of the Jamaica Diaspora at the National Windrush Museum in the United Kingdom on Wednesday.

The Minister’s statement follows:

“I report to you today that our petition was smoothly and successfully filed on Monday.

The petition simply asks the King to refer certain points of real importance to the Privy Council for their determination. The matters that His Majesty is asked to refer to the Judicial Committee for clarification are as follows (and I’m quoting directly from the petition):

‘(i) A determination as to whether Transatlantic Chattel Slavery, as practised in Jamaica, was in fact ever lawful under English law, or whether it was offensive to the fundamental principles of the common law and indeed to certain express statutory provisions of the Westminster Parliament;

(ii) A further determination as to whether the said forced transportation and chattel enslavement was a breach of relevant international obligations. These obligations include those arising out of general principles of law, the peremptory prohibitions of slavery, torture, racial discrimination and crimes against humanity and obligations derived from other sources of international law; and

(iii) Finally, His Majesty is respectfully invited to refer the issue of whether there is a legal obligation on the part of the United Kingdom to provide a reparatory remedy to the people of Jamaica, as descendants of those subject to these dehumanising practices, and as a community of persons on whom the practices have had indelible, and continuing, negative effect.’

This petition has been filed to His Majesty — and I keep emphasising that point, but I have heard the criticism and complaint that perhaps the petition has not been filed because I did not physically deposit it into the King’s hand.

There are a few things that I would say in response to that.

The Government, acting through the Governor General, has been in contact with the Palace on the filing of the petition. The Palace has given us guidance on how to file the petition. We have followed the process. The process does not involve presenting the document physically to His Majesty.

However, we sought to have a courtesy call on His Majesty as we filed the petition through the requisite channels, but the Palace replied that the King would be away at Balmoral.

Working with members of the Diaspora — the Windrush generation and their descendants — we developed a programme of activities here to support and amplify the filing of the petition, and raise awareness about the Government of Jamaica’s programme for reparatory justice.

In consultation with members of the Diaspora, we decided to time the filing of the petition to coincide with the 245th anniversary of the Zong massacre which was commemorated with a major activity at the New Park Road Baptist Church in London on Sunday. We believe that filing the petition as we commemorated the Zong massacre, one of the worst illustrations of the gravest crime against humanity, would add weight to the filing of the petition. After all, the petition at his heart — indeed our entire reparatory justice programme — is about dealing with the gravest crime against humanity and finding ways to repair the damage that has been done to our African ancestors; a damage that continues to affect us today.

Contrary to what you might have read in some publications, or seen online, our petition does not include a monetary claim.

However, we believe there must be, there has to be, some appropriate remedy or remedies for the atrocity of chattel enslavement which our ancestors endured.

It is not enough to regret the suffering that slavery inflicted on our ancestors and say let’s build a new future.

We have been taught that when you do something wrong, you must take responsibility for it, apologise and try to set things right. That is really the essence of reparatory justice. It is about repairing the damage which is still evident today.

In this regard, I seek your support in this mission to set things right; to repair a damage; to repair a people.

If we take this on together, there can be no stopping us.”

END