The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued a stark warning today, stating that a new bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago threatens to prolong the historic violations suffered by the Chagossian people. The arrangement, signed on 22 May 2025 but still awaiting domestic ratification, is officially presented as a step toward implementing the International Court of Justice’s 2019 advisory opinion calling for the UK to end its administration of the islands “as rapidly as possible.” Yet the Committee said the deal instead cements restrictions that directly contradict the UN’s own decolonization directives.
Central to CERD’s concern is the agreement’s provision allowing Mauritius to transfer sovereignty while simultaneously leasing Diego Garcia—the site of the joint US-UK military base—to the United Kingdom for 99 years, with an option for a 40-year extension. The Committee said the arrangement explicitly blocks the Chagossian community from returning to their ancestral lands on Diego Garcia, even though Mauritius may pursue limited resettlement on other islands in the archipelago. It warned that denying access to Diego Garcia undermines the Chagossians’ cultural rights, their ability to preserve their heritage and identity, and their long-recognized right to self-determination.
The Committee also criticised the apparent exclusion of Chagossians from meaningful participation during the negotiations, stressing that decisions affecting their lands and livelihoods were made without adequate consultation. Such omissions, it said, further erode their right to self-determination and contradict the UN General Assembly’s request that any resettlement occur without obstacles or impediments. The agreement, according to CERD, also fails to provide full reparation for the harms inflicted during the community’s forced displacement in the late 1960s and 1970s, offering neither restitution nor compensation, nor any formal acknowledgment of past wrongdoing.
Calling the situation urgent, CERD urged both the UK and Mauritius to halt ratification of the agreement and reopen negotiations grounded in the free, prior and informed consent of the Chagossian people. It insisted that any future arrangement must respect their right to return to Diego Garcia, guarantee effective remedies and reparations, and uphold both governments’ obligations under international human rights treaties. The Committee’s decision, issued under its early warning and urgent action procedures, pressed the two states to work toward ending the decades-long harm experienced by the Chagossian people rather than deepening it through a new, restrictive deal.
