The United Kingdom has been all over the political headlines this month, with multiple terror attacks, a tragic building fire that killed over 50 people that could lead to lawsuits, Brexit woes, and now an appearance before an international tribunal. The reason for the latest in that sequence is a military base in the Chagos Islands archipelago, a chain of roughly 60 islands with the population of about 3,000 people according to the latest data available. Ignoring the issues surrounding territorial waters, which are always contentious especially when countries disputing over them go to international courts, the U.K. claims that these islands were incorporated into their reach in a 1965 agreement with former colony Mauritius. Mauritius, which became an independent state in 1968 and is most famous resident was the extinct Dodo bird, claims these sparsely populated islands are theirs and that they were illegally snatched by the U.K. to house a United States military base and have decided that the best course of action was to ask the United Nations to recommend going to the International Court of Justice. For the record, Mauritius doesn’t even want to close the base, which they are open to negotiating with the U.S. over, provided they and not the U.K. control the islands.
Unfortunately for Britain, many of its former European Union comembers have either sided with Mauritius as a part of the 94 member states of the U.N. General Assembly who voted to send the feud to the ICJ or joined the 65 states who abstained from voting. Only 15 states support the claim by the U.K. that it should not at the very least go to court, and although individual state reasons for abstaining may vary the multiple European Union abstentions, rather than support for the U.K. reflect just how cut off from the rest of the world the Brexit vote has made them. It is not all bad news for the U.K. however as the opinion given by the ICJ is, like much of international law only a series of recommendations that are by design impossible to enforce, which could render this entire process frivolous for the Mauritian government even if the court does agree with them. The most important part in this development, however, is that the lack of European support for the U.K. shows just how much of a beating the reputation of the U.K. has taken in twelve months because of their isolationist actions.
