Elliott Phillips comments on the UK’s decision to relinquish sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in Global Arbitration Review

On 3 October 2024, the UK announced its decision to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

Commenting on the decision, Gibraltar Partner Elliott Phillips said: "The decision by the UK to relinquish sovereignty over the Chagos Islands (BIOT) could have implications for British citizens in the remaining Overseas Territories. On one view, the decision this week resolves a long-standing dispute between the UK and Mauritius and it has been broadly welcomed by the international community, on another view the decision has completely ignored the wishes of the Chagossian communities around the world and drove a coach and horses through their rights to determine their own future. I can't think of anything more colonial than the administering power conducting negotiations bilaterally with a foreign power and denying Chagossians a seat at the table when the future of their homeland was being determined."

Elliott notes: "Even if the deal is broadly welcomed, it sets an uncomfortable precedent, namely, that it is permissible to exclude the very people whose future is being decided upon from negotiations about its future. The UK Government talks up the "great British family" and on this occasion a family member has been excluded from a critical debate about its future.

"If the UK is willing to act unilaterally without the views of those who are affected, what reliance can any of us have on historic steadfast assurances, promises and "guarantees" made to other Overseas Territories regarding their sovereignty. The Governments of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands have separately issued statements in the last 48 hours restating their historic and evolved constitutional relationships with the United Kingdom and they set out their stall on the very different relationships that they both have with the UK."

Elliott further highlights: "Gibraltar has very specifically repeated the UK's double lock commitment to Gibraltar, namely that the UK will "never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another State against their freely and democratically expressed wishes, nor enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content"

"We cannot forget that it wasn't so long ago that Argentina invaded the Falklands and a labour Government in 2002 proposed joint sovereignty with Spain over Gibraltar. Things can of course change and whilst it would be inconceivable that the sovereignty of other Overseas Territories would be negotiated absent the participation of the OT, they cannot rest entirely easy. The case of Chagos was very different but the UK's role in the world is very different to what it once was and in an uncertain world the Overseas Territories deserve a unequivocal statement from HMG."

Elliott concludes: "The British Overseas territories are unique, they are largely self-governing, economically diversified and self-sufficient, deeply respectful of the rule of law and most importantly, they have vibrant cultures which enrich the British family. The right of British citizens in the Overseas territories to determine their own future must always rest with the people and not London and a foreign power."