Latest update December 21st, 2024 1:52 AM
ICJ to hear oral arguments from both countries next month
Guyana-Venezuela border dispute…
Kaieteur News – Come next month, the lawyers representing Guyana and Venezuela will commence oral arguments into the border dispute court case between the two countries.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will hold public hearings in the case concerning the Arbitral Award of October 3, 1899 (Guyana v. Venezuela), from Thursday 17 to Tuesday 22 November 2022, at the ICJ, which is housed in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands.
The Peace Palace, which houses the ICJ in The Hague, Netherlands.
According to the ICJ, the hearings will be devoted to the preliminary objections raised by Venezuela. The first round of oral arguments will be on November 17, from the lawyers for Venezuela, and on November 18, the lawyers for Guyana will present their oral arguments. The second round of oral arguments is set for November 21, and 22.
The court case between the sister countries stems from the dispute between Guyana and Venezuela, over the ownership of the Essequibo Region.
The matter is before the Court, pursuant to the decision of the Secretary General (SG) of the United Nations, under the 1966 Geneva Agreement, by which the parties conferred upon the SG the authority to determine the means by which the border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela shall be settled.
Guyana seeks from the Court a decision that the Arbitral Award of 1899 determining the boundary, is valid and binding upon Guyana and Venezuela, and that the boundary established by that Award and the 1905 Agreement demarcating it, is the lawful boundary between Guyana and Venezuela.
Some 123 years ago, an Arbitral Award was delivered to settle the land boundary dispute between then British Guiana and Venezuela.
The Tribunal was created by the Treaty of Washington of 1897 under which the parties – both Britain and Venezuela – agreed to accept the Tribunal’s Award as ‘a full, perfect and final settlement’ of the boundary issue. One hundred and twenty three years later, Guyana still accepts and celebrates the Award as such.
Venezuela had applauded the Award. In the words of the law firm handling Venezuela’s case, written in the American Journal of International Law as late as 1949: “The Award secured to Venezuela the mouth of the Orinoco and control of the Orinoco basin, these being the most important questions at issue.”
On 7th May, 1905, an official boundary map was drawn up by Commissioners of Britain and Venezuela delineating the boundary as awarded by the Tribunal. For almost sixty years, Venezuela recognised, respected – and even protected – that boundary.
In 1962, however, as Guyana’s independence drew closer and the neighbour would no longer be Britain but a fledgling State, Venezuela abandoned the path of propriety and with it the rule of law and cast eyes on Guiana’s Essequibo territory.
Guyana brought the matter to the Court in an Application submitted on 29th March, 2018.
The Court confirmed its jurisdiction over Guyana’s claims, rejecting Venezuela’s objections, in a Judgment issued on 18 December, 2020. This assures that it will be the Court which decides, with final and binding effect on the parties – Guyana and Venezuela – whether the 1899 Arbitral Award establishing the international boundary between the two States was lawfully issued and remains legally valid and permanently binding as a matter of international law.
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