GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Guyana government yesterday said that it has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to proceed with at the earliest possible date, a hearing to determine whether or not it has the jurisdiction to hear the border dispute involving Venezuela.
Caracas has long stated that the Hague-based court, which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) and established in June 1945, does not have jurisdiction to hear the border case filed by Guyana.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it has asked the ICJ to move ahead with oral hearings at the earliest possible date.
In consequence, Guyana has decided to ask the Court to proceed directly to the holding of oral hearings, at the earliest possible date, to determine its jurisdiction over the case.”
Both Guyana and Venezuela were asked to submit written submissions about whether the Court had jurisdiction over the matter.
The statement said that Guyana had submitted its written Memorial on Jurisdiction – demonstrating that the Court has jurisdiction to decide on the validity of the Arbitral Award and the resulting boundary – on 19 November 2018.
It said that although the ICJ fixed April 18 as the date for Venezuela to submit a Counter-Memorial on Jurisdiction, Caracas failed to make a submission on that date, and indicated in a letter from its Foreign Minister that it had chosen not do so.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Guyana is confident that the Court will agree that it has jurisdiction, and then proceed to decide on the merits of Guyana’s suit.
Guyana submitted the case to the Court after the UN Secretary General António Guterres determined, that the dispute over the validity of the Arbitral Award, and the resulting boundary, must be decided by the Court. That constitutes a sufficient jurisdictional basis for the Court to proceed.
UN representative Dag Halvor Nylander from Norway had been appointed by the UN to help broker a settlement by the end of 2017, however it was concluded that significant progress had not been made towards arriving at a full agreement for the resolution of the dispute. The century long border dispute escalated in May 2015 when oil was found in disputed waters off the coast of Venezuela.
Georgetown said that it regrets that Venezuela, notwithstanding its obligations under the Geneva Agreement and the Secretary General’s decision to refer the matter to the Court, has chosen not to participate in the case.
Guyana said it has taken “note of the Venezuelan Foreign Minister’s recent tweet that, at some point in the future, it will supply the Court with “information” about the case to assist it in the exercise of its judicial functions,” the Foreign Affairs statement said, adding “if this is a first step toward Venezuela’s full participation in the case, Guyana welcomes it”.
At the same time, Guyana has reserved its right to object to any submission by Venezuela that violates the Court’s rules or is otherwise prejudicial. (CMC)
