King Charles is facing fresh pressure to apologise for slavery as Commonwealth campaigners push for reparations – leaving today’s taxpayers facing demands to pay for the wrongs of centuries past.
Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Commonwealth’s secretary-general, said an apology “wouldn’t hurt” ahead of the King’s Caribbean tour.
“That’s what the countries have asked for... It wouldn’t hurt to have that. Not at all”, she told Sky News.
But the demands go well beyond words. Botchwey insists the “time has come” to discuss reparations, including financial payments.
The principle is hard to justify. Why should people who never owned slaves be asked to compensate people who were never enslaved?
The King will visit the Bahamas, Guyana, and Antigua and Barbuda next week, culminating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where reparations are expected to feature prominently.
Buckingham Palace says Charles will “not shy away” from discussing the slave trade. However, he will follow government advice and stop short of issuing an official apology for Britain’s role.
Botchwey, a former Ghanaian foreign minister, made clear that campaigners are pursuing more than a symbolic gesture.
“I don’t believe we can run away from it”, she said.
Alongside financial compensation, she suggested “concessional financing”, the return of artefacts and measures involving “climate issues”.
The pressure also comes from Jamaica, whose representatives have petitioned the King over compensation for the slave trade.
According to the Telegraph, Charles referred the matter to the Privy Council, with a hearing provisionally scheduled for the week of 8 March 2027. The committee could consider whether Britain has a legal obligation to provide a remedy.
Successive British governments have rejected reparations, and the government says it will not pay.
That position should hold. Slavery was an atrocity. That doesn’t mean that Britons born generations after its abolition should foot the bill for crimes they did not commit.
Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Commonwealth’s secretary-general, said an apology “wouldn’t hurt” ahead of the King’s Caribbean tour.
“That’s what the countries have asked for... It wouldn’t hurt to have that. Not at all”, she told Sky News.
But the demands go well beyond words. Botchwey insists the “time has come” to discuss reparations, including financial payments.
The principle is hard to justify. Why should people who never owned slaves be asked to compensate people who were never enslaved?
The King will visit the Bahamas, Guyana, and Antigua and Barbuda next week, culminating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where reparations are expected to feature prominently.
Buckingham Palace says Charles will “not shy away” from discussing the slave trade. However, he will follow government advice and stop short of issuing an official apology for Britain’s role.
Botchwey, a former Ghanaian foreign minister, made clear that campaigners are pursuing more than a symbolic gesture.
“I don’t believe we can run away from it”, she said.
Alongside financial compensation, she suggested “concessional financing”, the return of artefacts and measures involving “climate issues”.
The pressure also comes from Jamaica, whose representatives have petitioned the King over compensation for the slave trade.
According to the Telegraph, Charles referred the matter to the Privy Council, with a hearing provisionally scheduled for the week of 8 March 2027. The committee could consider whether Britain has a legal obligation to provide a remedy.
Successive British governments have rejected reparations, and the government says it will not pay.
That position should hold. Slavery was an atrocity. That doesn’t mean that Britons born generations after its abolition should foot the bill for crimes they did not commit.
Photo by: Hayden Soloviev.
