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Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965

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Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965
CourtInternational Court of Justice
Full case name Advisory Opinion on Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965
Decided25 February 2019
CitationLegal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965
Court membership
Judges sittingAbdulqawi Yusuf, Xue Hanqin, Peter Tomka, Ronny Abraham, Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade, Joan Donoghue, Patrick Lipton Robinson, Giorgio Gaja, Julia Sebutinde, Kirill Gevorgian, Nawaf Salam, Yuji Iwasawa, Dalveer Bhandari, Mohamed Bennouna
Case opinions
Process of decolonization of Mauritius not lawfully completed, and United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring an end to its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible (13–1)

The Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 is an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Chagos Archipelago sovereignty dispute in response to a request from the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).[1] In a 13–1 ruling (with only Judge Joan Donoghue dissenting), the Court deemed the United Kingdom's separation of the Chagos Islands from the rest of Mauritius in 1965, when both were colonial territories, to be unlawful and found that the United Kingdom is obliged to end "its administration of the Chagos Islands as rapidly as possible."[2]

Request

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On 23 June 2017, the UNGA voted in favour of referring the territorial dispute between Mauritius and the UK to the ICJ in order to clarify the legal status of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The motion was approved by a majority vote with 94 voting for and 15 against.[3][4]

Aftermath

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On 22 May 2019, the UNGA voted 116 to 6 (Australia, Hungary, Israel, Maldives, United Kingdom, United States against; 56 abstained) to adopt Resolution 73/295 welcoming the ICJ advisory opinion.[5][6] The UK House of Commons considered this resolution on 3 July 2019, when Sir Alan Duncan, Minister of State for Europe and North America, stated that "The UK remains committed to seeking resolution of this bilateral sovereignty dispute with Mauritius through direct, bilateral dialogue."[7]

References

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  1. ^ Burri, Thomas; Trinidad, Jamie, eds. (2021). The International Court of Justice and Decolonisation: New Directions from the Chagos Advisory Opinion. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108893770. ISBN 978-1-108-89377-0.
  2. ^ Bowcott, Owen (2019-02-25). "UN court rejects UK's claim of sovereignty over Chagos Islands". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  3. ^ Sengupta, Somini (22 June 2017). "U.N. Asks International Court to Weigh In on Britain-Mauritius Dispute". The New York Times.
  4. ^ "Chagos legal status sent to international court by UN". BBC News. 22 June 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  5. ^ "General Assembly Welcomes International Court of Justice Opinion on Chagos Archipelago". www.un.org.
  6. ^ "A/RES/73/295: UN General Assembly Resolution 73/295".
  7. ^ "Chagos Islands: UN General Assembly Resolution - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk.
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