London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025

UN court rules UK has no sovereignty over Chagos islands

UN court rules UK has no sovereignty over Chagos islands

The maritime law tribunal of the United Nations has ruled that Britain has no sovereignty over the Chagos Islands.

It criticised London for its failure to hand the territory back to Mauritius.

The judges' decision confirms a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and a vote in the UN General Assembly.

The Indian Ocean archipelago includes a US military base. The UK has said it will hand the islands back when they're no longer needed for defence purposes.

In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said: "The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814. Mauritius has never held sovereignty over the BIOT and the UK does not recognise its claim."

The panel of judges at the United Nation's International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLS) explicitly criticised the UK's failure to hand the territory over to its former colony, Mauritius, by December 2019, as earlier demanded by a near-unanimous vote at the UN's General Assembly.

"The judgement… is clear and unequivocal. Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago," Mauritius's Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth told the BBC.

An international lawyer representing Mauritius in its dispute with the UK called on the British government to move quickly to surrender control of the islands.

"What this means for the UK is that if it is to have any credibility around the world on the rule of law and its global branding, it needs to move immediately to bring this lamentable situation to an end," said lawyer Philippe Sands.

He argues that the ITLS judges had opted to "punish" Britain for ignoring an earlier ruling by the ICJ in The Hague.



Thursday's ruling emerged from a relatively obscure legal dispute about ocean maps, fishing rights, and hidden reefs, as Mauritius sought to settle a dispute with another Indian Ocean island nation, the Maldives, over their maritime borders.

The Maldives - which supports the UK's claim to the Chagos Islands - had insisted that the boundary question could not be resolved while sovereignty remained in dispute.

The ITLS judges rejected that argument.

The UK, which was the former colonial power in Mauritius, has repeatedly promised to hand control of the Chagos archipelago back to Mauritius once the islands are no longer needed for defence purposes.

Following a secret deal between the UK and the US governments in the 1960s, one of the larger atolls, Diego Garcia, became a strategic American military airbase.

"The end of UK administration has no implications for the US military base at Diego Garcia, which Mauritius is committed to maintaining," Prime Minister Jugnauth confirmed on Thursday.

Britain and the US are anxious to counter the potential expansion of Chinese military power in the Indian Ocean, and have argued that security issues outweigh emotive arguments about the ownership of a handful of tiny, and sparsely populated islands.

Following the Brexit vote, Britain appeared to lose support at the UN.

The UN voted to send the Chagos issue to the ICJ for an advisory opinion, which came down unanimously against the UK in 2019, declaring that Britain was in violation of international law and should immediately move to complete the process of "decolonisation" in relation to Mauritius.

The ICJ's advisory opinion has now been given a powerful endorsement by the ITLS.

The ruling should enable Mauritius to start settling its new maritime borders.

Elderly Chagossians have campaigned for decades to be allowed to return to live on the islands from which some of them were forcibly removed by British troops.

Britain has organised "heritage" visits for some islanders, who now live mostly in the UK and Mauritius.- a scattering of remote atolls to the south of India and east of Africa.

There is a growing international consensus that Britain should complete the process of decolonisation immediately.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
×