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Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). It has been used as a joint UK–U.S. military base since the 1970s, following the expulsion of the Chagossians by the UK government. The Chagos Islands have been a British overseas territory, but in early October 2024, the UK agreed to transfer sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius, while allowing the military base to remain under a 99-year lease, pending a treaty ratification.
Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about 2,000 kilometres off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island, as well as Rodrigues, Agaléga, and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, along with nearby Réunion, are part of the Mascarene Islands. The main island of Mauritius, where the population is concentrated, hosts the capital and largest city, Port Louis. The country spans 2,040 square kilometres (790 sq mi) and has an exclusive economic zone covering 2,300,000 square kilometres.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization headquartered at the Peace Palace, in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides administrative support in international arbitrations involving various combinations of States, State entities, international organizations and private parties. The cases span a range of legal issues involving territorial and maritime boundaries, sovereignty, human rights, international investment, and international and regional trade. The PCA is constituted through two separate multilateral conventions with a combined membership of 124 Contracting Parties. The PCA is not a United Nations agency, but has been a United Nations observer since 1993.
The Chagos Archipelago or Chagos Islands is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. In its north are the Salomon Islands, Nelsons Island and Peros Banhos; towards its south-west are the Three Brothers, Eagle Islands, Egmont Islands and Danger Island; southeast of these is Diego Garcia, by far the largest island. All are low-lying atolls, save for a few extremely small instances, set around lagoons.
The Chagossians are an Afro-Asian ethnic group originating from freed African slaves brought to the Chagos Islands, specifically Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and the Salomon island chain, in the late 18th century as well as people of Asian descent. Under international law, they are the indigenous people of the Chagos archipelago. Most Chagossians now live in Mauritius, Seychelles, and the United Kingdom after being forcibly removed by the British government in the late 1960s and early 1970s so that Diego Garcia, the island where most Chagossians lived, could serve as the location for a United States military base. Today, no Chagossians are allowed to live on the island of Diego Garcia or anywhere in the Chagos archipelago, despite many of the islands they used to inhabit being over 160 kilometres (99 mi) away from Diego Garcia.
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is a subsidiary body of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) responsible for helping to facilitate international trade and investment.
Scarborough Shoal, also known as Panacot,Bajo de Masinloc, Huangyan Island, Minzhu Jiao, and Panatag Shoal, are two skerries between Macclesfield Bank to the west and Luzon to the east. Luzon is 220 kilometres (119 nmi) away and the nearest landmass. The atoll is a disputed territory claimed by the Republic of the Philippines through the Treaty of Washington in 1900 via the 1734 Velarde map, as well as by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan). The atolls' status is often discussed in conjunction with other territorial disputes in the South China Sea, such as those involving the Spratly Islands and the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff. In 2013, the Philippines initiated arbitration against China under UNCLOS. In 2016, the tribunal ruled that China's historic title within the nine-dash line was invalid but did not rule on sovereignty.
A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conservation purpose, typically to protect natural or cultural resources. Such marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, national, or international authorities and differ substantially among and between nations. This variation includes different limitations on development, fishing practices, fishing seasons and catch limits, moorings and bans on removing or disrupting marine life. MPAs can provide economic benefits by supporting the fishing industry through the revival of fish stocks, as well as job creation and other market benefits via ecotourism. The value of MPA to mobile species is unknown.
The United Kingdom, at the request of the United States, began expelling the inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in 1968, concluding its forced deportations on 27 April 1973 with the expulsion of the remaining Chagossians on the Peros Banhos atoll. The inhabitants, known at the time as the Ilois, are today known as Chagos Islanders or Chagossians.
Arbitration is a formal method of dispute resolution involving a third party neutral who makes a binding decision. The third party neutral renders the decision in the form of an 'arbitration award'. An arbitration award is legally binding on both sides and enforceable in local courts, unless all parties stipulate that the arbitration process and decision are non-binding.
An arbitral tribunal or arbitration tribunal, also arbitration commission, arbitration committee or arbitration council is a panel of unbiased adjudicators which is convened and sits to resolve a dispute by way of arbitration. The tribunal may consist of a sole arbitrator, or there may be two or more arbitrators, which might include a chairperson or an umpire. The tribunal usually consists of an odd number of arbitrators. Members selected to serve on an arbitration panel are typically professionals with expertise in both law and in friendly dispute resolution (mediation). Some scholars have suggested that the ideal composition of an arbitration commission should include at least also one professional in the field of the disputed situation, in cases that involve questions of asset or damages valuation for instance an economist.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands, many very small, amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Official administration is remote from London, though the local capital is often regarded as being on Diego Garcia.
Justice Jean-Paul Beraudo is a lawyer, academic and author of legal works. He was Justice at the French Supreme Court and vice-chairman of the International Court of Arbitration. He lectures on International Private Law and International Trade Law at Panthéon-Sorbonne University and on Company law at Sciences-Po, Paris. The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) appointed him correspondent for France and a member of the scientific committee.
Barbados v. Trinidad and Tobago was a 2006 arbitral case between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in which the tribunal resolved the maritime border dispute between the two countries. The dispute was arbitrated before an arbitral tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in which the Permanent Court of Arbitration served as registry.
The Arbitration Act 1996 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which regulates arbitration proceedings within the jurisdiction of England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
Sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is disputed between Mauritius, Maldives and the United Kingdom. Mauritius has repeatedly stated that the Chagos Archipelago is part of its territory and that the United Kingdom claim is a violation of United Nations resolutions banning the dismemberment of colonial territories before independence. On 22 May 2019, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution declaring that the archipelago was part of Mauritius; 116 countries voted in favour of Mauritius while six opposed it.
The Chagos Marine Protected Area, located in the central Indian Ocean in the British Indian Ocean Territory of the United Kingdom, is one of the world's largest officially designated marine protected areas, and one of the largest protected areas of any type on Earth. It was established by the British government on 1 April 2010 as a massive, contiguous, marine reserve, it encompasses 640,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi) of ocean waters, including roughly 70 small islands and seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago.
The South China Sea Arbitration was an arbitration case brought by the Republic of the Philippines against the People's Republic of China (PRC) under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning certain issues in the South China Sea, including the nine-dash line introduced by the mainland-based Republic of China since as early as 1947. A tribunal of arbitrators appointed the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) as the registry for the proceedings.
The United Kingdom's exclusive economic zone is the fifth largest in the world at 6,805,586 km2 (2,627,651 sq mi). It comprises the exclusive economic zones surrounding the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies, and the British Overseas Territories. The figure does not include the EEZ of the British Antarctic Territory.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Republic of Mauritius v. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Archived from the original on 2012-07-29. Retrieved 2012-06-10.
- ↑ Arbitrators Appointed in the Mauritius v UK Case concerning the Chagos Islands « EJIL: Talk!
- ↑ "In the Matter of the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration - before - an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea- between - the Republic of Mauritius - and - the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" (PDF). Permanent Court of Arbitration. 18 March 2015.
- ↑ The American Society of International Law (Archived)
- ↑ Bowcott, Owen; Vidal, John (January 28, 2013). "Britain faces UN tribunal over Chagos Islands marine reserve". The Guardian. Retrieved May 17, 2013.
- ↑ "PCA Press Release, The Republic of Mauritius v. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Permanent Court of Arbitration. January 22, 2013. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
- ↑ In the Matter of the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration - before - an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea- between - the Republic of Mauritius - and - the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, award of the arbitral tribunal dated 18 March 2015, accessed July 25, 2016, paragraphs 544-547: "In concluding that the declaration of the MPA was not in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, the Tribunal has taken no view on the substantive quality or nature of the MPA or on the importance of environmental protection. The Tribunal’s concern has been with the manner in which the MPA was established, rather than its substance. It is now open to the Parties to enter into the negotiations that the Tribunal would have expected prior to the proclamation of the MPA, with a view to achieving a mutually satisfactory arrangement for protecting the marine environment, to the extent necessary under a “sovereignty umbrella”... DECLARES, unanimously, that in establishing the MPA surrounding the Chagos Archipelago the United Kingdom breached its obligations under Articles 2(3), 56(2), and 194(4) of the Convention.
