Guyana looks forward to ICJ resolution of border controversy as more submissions are made

Guyana remains steadfast in ensuring there is a juridical settlement to the border controversy with Venezuela.

On Tuesday (March 08, 2022) the country submitted its Memorial on the Merits of its case against Venezuela to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

The submission forms part of the requirement by the Court following its December 18, 2020, decision that confirmed the Court’s jurisdiction to decide on the merits of Guyana’s claims.

The matter is before the Court pursuant to the decision of the Secretary General of the United Nations under the 1966 Geneva Agreement, by which the parties conferred upon the Secretary General the authority to determine the means by which the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela shall be settled.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation reminded that 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.

The Court has agreed in its earlier decision that it has jurisdiction to do so. Guyana now looks to the Court’s judicial process and its settlement of the matter under the rule of law.

“This year sees the 56th anniversary of the 1966 Geneva Agreement. Guyana considers that the true connumeration of that Agreement is in contributing in good faith to the fulfilment of its true meaning and intent by participating fully in the cumin juridical process deriving from it. Hence the submission today to the International Court of Justice of Guyana’s Memorial on the Merits as required by the Court,” the statement added.

Venezuela is maintaining a claim to some 70 per cent of Guyana’s land – the Essequibo region – including Guyana’s offshore oil reserves, arguing that the 1899 agreement, which determined the boundaries between the two countries is null and void.