Global InformationChagos Archipelago information
| Disputed islands | |
|---|---|
 Map of the Chagos Archipelago | |
  Location of the Chagos Archipelago (circled) | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Indian Ocean |
| Coordinates | 6°00′S 71°30′E / 6.000°S 71.500°E |
| Major islands | Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, Salomon Islands, Egmont Islands |
| Area | 56.13 km2 (21.67 sq mi) |
| Administration | |
 United Kingdom | |
| Territory |  British Indian Ocean Territory |
| Claimed by | |
 Mauritius (per international law)[1] | |
| Outer Islands | Chagos Archipelago |
| Demographics | |
| Demonym | Chagossian Chagos Islander |
| Population | ‹See Tfd› ≈3,000 (Eclipse Point Town) (2014) |
| Ethnic groups |
|
The Chagos Archipelago (/ˈtʃɑːɡəs, -ɡoʊs/) or Chagos Islands (formerly the Bassas de Chagas,[2] and later the Oil 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.[3] 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 Chagos Islands had been home to the Chagossians from the 1700s brought as workers by the French from Africa and India, a Bourbonnais Creole-speaking people, until the United Kingdom expelled them from the archipelago at the request of the United States between 1967 and 1973 to allow the United States to build Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, a military base on Diego Garcia, on land leased from the UK military in the British Indian Ocean Territories. Since 1971, only the atoll of Diego Garcia has been inhabited, and only by employees of the US military, including American civilian contracted personnel. Since being expelled, Chagossians, like all others not permitted by the UK or US governments, have been prevented from entering the islands.
When Mauritius was a French colony, the islands were a dependency of the French administration in Mauritius (Île Maurice). By the Treaty of Paris of 1814, France ceded Mauritius and its dependencies to the United Kingdom.
In 1965, while planning for Mauritian independence the UK constituted the Chagos as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).[4][5] Mauritius gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1968, and has since claimed the Chagos Archipelago as Mauritian territory.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a non-binding advisory opinion stating that the UK "...has an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible, and that all Member States must co-operate with the United Nations to complete the decolonization of Mauritius".[6] In December of that year, the Sega tambour Chagos genre was recognized as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage from Mauritius.[7] In January 2021, the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution proclaiming this.[8] In 2021, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea confirmed for its jurisdiction that the UK has "no sovereignty over the Chagos Islands" thus the islands should be handed back to Mauritius.[8][9]
In August 2021, the Universal Postal Union banned British stamps from being used in BIOT, a move Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth called a "big step in favour of the recognition of the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chago".[10]
- ^ "British Indian Ocean Territory". CIA.gov. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
- ^ "Track of the Calcutta East Indiaman, over the Bassas de Chagas in the Indian Ocean". Catalogue.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ World Wildlife Fund, ed. (2001). "Maldives-Lakshadweep-Chagos Archipelago tropical moist forests". WildWorld Ecoregion Profile. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 8 March 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
realwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Nichols, Michelle (22 June 2017). "U.N. asks international court to advise on Chagos; Britain opposed". Reuters. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
- ^ "Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965". International Court of Justice.
- ^ "Sega tambour Chagos - intangible heritage - Culture Sector - UNESCO". Retrieved 19 December 2020.
- ^ a b "UN court rules UK has no sovereignty over Chagos islands". BBC News. 28 January 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
- ^ Siddique, Haroon (16 May 2021). "UN favours Mauritian control of Chagos Islands by rejecting UK stamps". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
- ^ "UN bans British stamps in Chagos island". The Hindu. 26 August 2021 – via www.thehindu.com.