We want the United Nations to help us
EXCLUSIVE: Two Chagossian campaigners take on the UK Government by asking the UN to intervene in the UK’s Chagos sovereignty deal, writes Tessa Clarke, Editor, THE CHAGOS FILES.
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“The fight is not over. There is NOTHING in that [Chagos sovereignty] treaty for Chagossians and we will FIGHT!” says a defiant Bertrice Pompe tonight.
Pompe joins Bernadette Dugasse today to send a legal letter to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva.
They aim to “challenge the legality and legitimacy of the 2025 bilateral Agreement between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Mauritius concerning the Chagos Archipelago.”
In the letter they argue that the sovereignty treaty:
“would amount to a definitive and irreversible endorsement of a continuing violation originally initiated by the colonial power. By excluding the Chagossian people from the process and de facto accepting their permanent displacement, the Agreement entrenches the denial of their right to return and the effective exercise of their cultural, spiritual rights. It risks transforming an ongoing injustice into a permanent legal reality, in clear breach of the State’s obligations under the Covenant.”
Pompe and Dugasse are Chagossian campaigners and British citizens born on the military base Diego Garcia on the Chagos Islands. This week they are taking on the UK government. Again.
Both campaigners have submitted previous court challenges to the UK Government’s £101m a year Chagos sovereignty deal and military base lease in the past year. Last Summer Dugasse brought a case for a Judicial Review of the sovereignty deal. It was not accepted by the judge.
In a sensational turn of events last month Pompe was granted the right to an immediate hearing the night before the UK and Mauritian Governments were due to sign the deal on 22 May. About 60 Chagossians campaigners appeared outside the High Court in support. The judge in the hearing concluded, however, there was no case to answer. The deal was signed. It will now be presented to parliament by the UK Government for enactment as a treaty bill.
“In the treaty there is nothing for us Chagossians,” says Dugasse this evening. “We will keep up the fight until we are heard and satisfied. Our rights matter.” And added, “Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has slated us Chagossians again. This is what Labour is good for.”
Last year on 26 May the two campaigners were involved in trying to use UN mechanisms before court action. These include triggering an Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and speaking to UN Special Rapporteurs on minority issues.
Now Pompe and Dugasse are writing to the UN Human Rights Committee, the organization responsible for monitoring implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). They allege that the following rights have been violated:
Article 1 (self-determination),
Article 2(3) (access to effective remedies),
Article 12 (freedom of movement and right to return),
Article 25 (participation), and
Article 27 (minority rights)
The letter demands that the Committee implement “interim measures” including asking Mauritius to suspend the ratification of the 2025 Agreement while the merits of the case are considered.
Although the Committee’s decisions are not legally binding, they carry significant moral and legal authority. Indeed the Prime Minister and David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, have cited the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory ruling in 2019 that Britain hand the islands to Mauritius, its former colony, as one of the reasons why they have done so. At the time the UN General Assembly welcomed the ruling.
Dugasse and Pompe oppose the deal which hands sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius because it ignores their rights to resettle on their homeland as well as the democratic rights of all Chagossian people to live there and have self-determination.
Sixty years ago Chagossian people were kicked off the Chagos Islands by the then British Government, a “colonial injustice” say the campaigners. A UK-US military base was built on one of the islands Diego Garcia. Although British and US military personnel live there, as well as administrative support workers from the Philippines, no Chagossian has been allowed to live there since.
Another crucial aspect they and other campaigning Chagossian groups against the deal raise is the fact that sovereignty of the islands has been handed to Mauritius without meaningful inclusion and consultation with all the Chagossians treated as a group of people with a serious claim to the islands.
It was in a surprise announcement on 3 October last year that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said a deal had been agreed with Mauritius. Ever since opposition parties the Conservatives and Reform have had heated exchanges in the House of Commons questioning the secrecy of the deal and its lack of merits on national security grounds. The government say the deal protects Britain’s military base and national security.
A few Chagossian groups around the world support Mauritian sovereignty of the islands, including the Chagossian Refugee Group led by Olivier Bancoult. However campaigners opposed to the deal point out there has never been a Referendum on the issue with all Chagossian individuals participating or all Britons.
“The deal continues violations of our fundamental rights under the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified and binding to Mauritius’ Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago,” says campaigner Bernadette Dugasse. “This is a culmination of decades of violation.”
Toby Nosquith who co-ordinated last month’s legal action commented, “I pity the poor souls in the No.10 Press Office who are being ordered to justify Keir Starmer’s betrayal of the Chagossian people. We’re looking forward to the explanation of why the UN Human Rights Committee doesn’t matter. Not pausing the Chagos deal until the Committee rules is indefensible.”
The treaty bill has yet to be submitted to parliament.
Tonight THE CHAGOS FILES has asked the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office (FCDO) for comment.
Tessa Clarke/5 June 2025
