· Mauritius has been struggling to regain the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago islands in the Indian Ocean from the UK for several years.
· The vote by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency focusing on the mail sector to ban British stamps from being used on the Chagos archipelago is a major victory for Mauritius.
Mauritius has been struggling to regain the sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago islands in the Indian Ocean from the UK for several years. The vote by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), a United Nations agency focusing on the mail sector to ban British stamps from being used on the Chagos archipelago is a major victory for Mauritius. From now on, all stamps from the Chagos Islands must bear stamps from Mauritius. Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth hailed the UN decision as a significant step in favour of the recognition of the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chagos.
Although Mauritius gained independence in 1968, the Chagos archipelago continued to be under British control leading to widespread protests by Chagossians for barring them from their homeland Mauritius. Since 1975, Mauritius has been pursuing concerted legal efforts to secure the archipelago’s return to its fold.
The UPU congress meeting voted to recognise Chagos as part of Mauritius and remove ‘‘British Indian Ocean Territory’ from its membership. As a result, registering, distributing and transmitting stamps bearing the words British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), the name given by Britain to the archipelago will be stopped.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice advised Britain to give up control of the islands which was followed later in the same year by a UN General Assembly resolution recognizing that “the Chagos Archipelago as an integral part of the territory of Mauritius. It also urged UN agencies “to support the decolonization of Mauritius”. Meanwhile UK has renewed a lease agreement with the United States to use Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, until 2036.
