DECISION ON CHAGOS ARCHIPELAGO
The Assembly,
REITERATES its commitment to the fight against all forms of colonialism in Africa in accordance with the OAU/All legal instruments and decisions, in particular, the 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration adopted at the 21st Ordinary Session of the Assembly in May 2013, which reaffirmed the need to ensure the completion of the decolonisation process in Africa;
RECALLS the United Nations (UN) Resolutions 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960 and 2066 (XX) of 16 December 1965 in relation to the continued unlawful occupation by the United Kingdom of the Chagos Archipelago, which forms an integral part of the territory of the Republic of Mauritius and over which the Republic of Mauritius is unable to effectively exercise its sovereignty. FURTHER RECALLS UN Resolution 2232 (XXI) of 20 December 1966 and Resolution 2357 (XXII) of 19 December 1967 which reiterated that any disruption of the territorial integrity of colonial territories in the decolonization process would be contrary to the UN Charter;
RENEWS its commitment to UN Resolution 2066 (XX) of 16 December 1965 which reaffirms the inalienable right of the people of Mauritius to freedom and that the UK Government should implement UN Resolution 1514 (XV) fully and invited "the administering Power to take no action which wouid dismember the Territory of Mauritius and violate its territorial integrity."
RECALLS the previous OAU/AU resolutions and decisions on the Chagos Archipelago, in particular the Assembly Resolutions: Assem bly/AU/Res.1 (XXV) adopted in June 2015 in Johannesburg as well as Assembly/AU/Res.1 (XXVIII) adopted in January 2017 in Addis Ababa;
TAKES NOTE of the resounding success at the vote taken at the UN General Assembly on 22 June 2017 for the adoption of Resolution 71/292 requesting the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give an Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, introduced by the Republic of the Congo on behalf of the Member States of the UN that are members of the Group of African States;
ACKNOWLEDGES the AU’s request for an extension of the deadline of 30 January 2018 for the submission of a written statement by the AU to the ICJ in relation to the Advisory Opinion requested by the UN General Assembly Resolution 71/292 (2017) on the “Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965” as well as the ICJ Order granting the new deadline of 1st March 2018 and 15 May 2018 for written submissions in accordance with Article 66 of the ICJ Statute;
DECIDES to fully support the Republic of Mauritius by all means in order to ensure the completion of the decolonization of the Republic of Mauritius and enable the Republic of Mauritius to effectively exercise its sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia;
CALLS UPON Member States, Regional Economic Communities, the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and all AU partners to make written submissions in support of the completion of the decolonization of the Republic of Mauritius to the ICJ within the deadline set by the ICJ Order;
CALLS UPON the United Kingdom to expeditiously put an end to its unlawful occupation of the Chagos Archipelago, in accordance with well-established principles of international law and the relevant decisions of OAU/AU and pertinent decisions of the UN;
COMMENDS the Chairperson of the Commission for the efforts exerted to make an AU submission and succeeding in bringing in the extension for the deadline and REQUESTS him to carry out the necessary campaign to bring more AU and UN States and other Organisations to support the call for the complete decolonization of the Republic of Mauritius as well as to make submissions in accordance with Article 66 of the ICJ Statute;
DECIDES to remain seized of the matter and REQUESTS the Commission to report on the progress and implementation of this decision to the Assembly in June/July 2018.