Around 2,000 Chagossians were forcibly removed from their homeland in the 1960s and 1970s, with many later resettling in the UK. Some have continued to fight for the right to return. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said it was deeply concerned that the treaty “explicitly prevents the return of the Chagossian people to their ancestral lands in Diego Garcia” and fails to acknowledge past abuses or provide full reparations. The committee also noted the absence of guarantees to protect the islands’ cultural identity.
All three parties, along with roughly 180 other states, are signatories to the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, overseen by the committee. “We recognise the importance of the islands to Chagossians,” a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said. “Under the treaty, Mauritius will be able to develop a resettlement programme for islands other than Diego Garcia, and the UK is committed to supporting heritage visits across the archipelago, including Diego Garcia.”
Mauritius’ mission in Geneva did not comment.
The International Court of Justice advised in 2019 that the islands should be returned to Mauritius, and the UK has since accepted that the expulsion of Chagossians was “deeply wrong and regrettable.”
The committee’s decision was issued through its early-warning system, which addresses urgent risks of treaty violations. It urged both countries to continue working towards ending the harm and restoring the rights of Chagossians.