Indigenous
Chagossian
People
News & Events
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Our urgent appeal to CERD has led a UN body to expose what diplomacy tried to hide; the hypocrisy behind this treaty.
It is not the implementation of the 2019 ICJ Advisory Opinion. It is a perpetuation of colonization and a blatant violation of our rights to self-determination and return. This treaty must not be ratified.
It took almost 4 months to get a verdict for the October 2025 Court Case
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Conclusions
The passing decades since the expulsion of the Chagossians from the Islands time have not healed the claimants’ sense of injustice. Their desire to return to their homeland has not abated. On an initial reading of the papers the strength of the defendant’s arguments shone through, but I reserved judgment for a number of reasons. Partly because of the wide-ranging nature of the allegations, the volume of paperwork and the long list of essential reading provided combined with insufficient pre-reading time. Also, in deference to the strength of the claimants’ feelings and the shamefulness of the treatment of the Chagossian people in the 1960s and 70s. I also had other cases in my list that day. Unfortunately, health issues and pressure of other work prevented me from preparing my judgment sooner for which I once again apologise. I appreciate that a quick decision is intended at or soon after an oral renewal hearing. Having now had time to read more deeply into the case papers, the claimants’ arguments remain as they first appeared for the reasons set out above. The defendant has delivered “a clear knock out blow” to each element of the claims, permission is refused and the claims are dismissed. It is therefore not necessary to consider the claimants’ application for a costs capping order.