International legal aspects of the Chagos Archipelago case

• Main Author: Kovač Kristian Z.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Law 2019-01-01
• Series: Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu
• Subjects: decolonisation; right to self-determination; human rights; marine protected area; international court of justice
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0550-2179/2019/0550-21791902725K.pdf
• ISSN: 0550-2179; 2406-1255

Chagos Archipelago is a territory that was detached from Mauritius in 1965 on the basis of the Lancaster House Agreement concluded between the governments of the United Kingdom and Mauritius, a colony of the United Kingdom in that period. That same year, the United Kingdom founded the British Indian Ocean Territory, which includes, inter alia, the territory of this archipelago. Mauritius gained its independence on 12th March 1968, while the Chagos Archipelago remained under the colonial rule of the United Kingdom. Mauritius continues to regard the Chagos Archipelago as its own territory, and is continually trying to use available international legal mechanisms to challenge the 1965 detachment of the Chagos Archipelago. The author investigates the international legal aspects of the longstanding dispute between Mauritius and the United Kingdom, such as the issue of the depopulation of the Chagos Archipelago, the unilateral proclamation of a Marine Protected Area by the United Kingdom in 2010, regarding which Mauritius initiated an arbitration award under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), as well as the issues of decolonization and the right of the people to self-determination, regarding which the United Nations General Assembly requested by Resolution 71 / 292 of 22 June 2017 an Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the subject matter. The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice was made on 25th February 2019.