The Arbitral Tribunal Renders its Award 

THE HAGUE, 19 March 2015 

The Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the “Convention”) in the matter of the Chagos Marine Protected Area Arbitration, between the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has issued its Award. This arbitration concerned the establishment by the United Kingdom on 1 April 2010 of a Marine Protected Area (“MPA”) around the Chagos Archipelago. The Chagos Archipelago is presently administered by the United Kingdom as the British Indian Ocean Territory. 

In its Award dated 18 March 2015, the Tribunal found by a majority of three votes to two that it lacked jurisdiction to consider Mauritius’ claim that the United Kingdom was not the “coastal State” in respect of the Chagos Archipelago for the purposes of the Convention. By the same vote, the Tribunal found that it also lacked jurisdiction to consider Mauritius’ alternative claim that certain undertakings by the United Kingdom had endowed Mauritius with rights as a “coastal State” in respect of the Archipelago. The Tribunal held that the dispute between the Parties expressed through these claims in fact concerned the question of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago; that this was not a matter concerning the interpretation or application of the Convention; and that the Tribunal did not therefore have jurisdiction to decide the matter.