Bar council pres. congratulates all involved in Maldives' win over Chagos Islands case

President of the Bar Council of the Maldives, Wisham Ismail has extended congratulations over the Maldives’ success in the Chagos Archipelago dispute.

In a Twitter post shared on Friday, Bar Council President Wisham congratulated everyone who was involved in the resilient work to make the success a reality.

As such, Wisham congratulated President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath, Deputy Attorney General Shabeen as well as the special team of state attorneys and counsels from the AG Office.

Highlighting that this was a “major” achievement, Wisham applauded the great work of all those involved.

The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on Friday ruled that the Maldives will acquire a major sea-region, over the dispute concerning the delimitation of the maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

At a public sitting held on Friday, the ITLOS Special Chamber delivered its judgment over the Chagos Archipelago issue.

The judgement was read by President of the Special Chamber Judge Jin-Hyun Paik. The declarations to the judgement were appended by President Paik, Judge Heidar and Judge ad hoc Schrijver.

The dispute was submitted to a Special Chamber formed in application of Article 15, Paragraph II, of the Statute of the Tribunal by way of a special agreement concluded on 24 September 2019 between the two countries concerned.

On 28 January 2021, the Special Chamber delivered its judgment on the preliminary objections and following the closure of the written proceedings, hearings on the merits of the case took place from 17 to 24 October 2022.

There is an area of about 95,000 square kilometers between the Maldives and the Chagos Archipelago, which is not covered by 200 nautical miles.

Mauritius in its final submissions requested the Special Chamber to adjudge and declare that the Special Chamber has jurisdiction to determine its claim to a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles and the claim is admissible and that the entire maritime boundary between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean, within 200 nautical miles and in the outer continental shelf, connects the 53 points, using geodetic lines, the geographic coordinates for which (in WGS 1984 datum) are set out on pages 54 and 55 of the Reply of Mauritius.

Further, the Maldives in its final submissions requested the Special Chamber to adjudge and declare that the claim by Mauritius to a continental shelf beyond 200M from the base lines from which its territorial sea is measured should be dismissed on the basis that it is outside the jurisdiction of the Special Chamber and is inadmissible.

The Maldives also requested to adjudge and declare the single maritime boundary between the Parties is a series of geodesic lines connecting the points 1 to 46 as set out in the Maldives’ Rejoinder at pages 69–70 and that in respect of the Parties’ Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), the maritime boundary between them connects point 46 to the point 47bis following the 200 M limit measured from the baselines of the Maldives as set out in the Maldives’ Rejoinder at page 70.

Further, the Maldives requested to declare that in respect of the Parties’ continental shelves, the maritime boundary between the Parties continues to consist of a series of geodesic lines connecting the points as set out in the Maldives’ Rejoinder at page 70, until it reaches the edge of the Maldives’ entitlement to a continental shelf beyond 200 M from the baselines from which the breadth of its territorial sea is measured (to be delineated following recommendations of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf at a later date).

In its judgement, the ITLOS Special Chamber unanimously decided that the single maritime boundary delimiting the exclusive economic zones and the continental shelves of the Parties within 200 nm extends from west to east between the intersections of the respective 200 nm limits determined in paragraphs 248 and 250 above and is composed of geodetic lines connecting the following points in WGS 84 as geodetic datum: Point 1 with coordinates 2° 17' 21.4" S and 70° 11' 56.2" E; turning points 2 to 36 with the coordinates identified in paragraph 249 above; Point X (Point 37) with coordinates 3° 07' 28.9" S and 73° 19' 11.0" E; and Point Y (Point 38) with coordinates 3° 20' 54.8" S and 75° 12' 52.1" E.

The ITLOS Special Chamber also unanimously found that its jurisdiction to delimit the continental shelf between the Parties includes the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles.

The Special Chamber also rejected the objection raised by the Maldives to the admissibility of Mauritius’ claim to the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles on the grounds that Mauritius’ submission to the CLCS was not filed in a timely manner, unanimously.

It was also unanimously found that in the circumstances of the present case, it is not in a position to determine the entitlement of Mauritius to the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles in the Northern Chagos Archipelago Region and decided that, consequently, it will not proceed to delimit the continental shelf between Mauritius and the Maldives beyond 200 nautical miles.