Strengthened mandate …UN in renewed push to resolve Guyana/Venezuela border controversy
Dag Halvor Nylander of Norway
Dag Halvor Nylander of Norway

…SG appoints Norwegian to lead Good Offices process

Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres,announced on Monday the appointment of Dag Halvor Nylander of Norway as his Personal Representative on the border controversy between Guyana and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

By the Geneva Agreement of 17 February 1966, Guyana and Venezuela have referred to the Secretary-General the decision as to means of settlement of the controversy that has arisen as the result of the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of 1899 about the frontier between Venezuela and what is now Guyana is null and void.
In a statement making the announcement the UN said: “as announced on 16 December 2016, the Secretary-General has concluded that the present Good Offices Process — which has been conducted since 1990 — will continue until the end of 2017, with a strengthened mandate of mediation.”
The UN said Nylander will conduct the Good Offices Process on behalf of the Secretary-General and will actively engage with the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela with a view to exploring and proposing options for a solution to the border controversy between the two countries. “If, by the end of 2017, the Secretary-General concludes that no significant progress has been made towards arriving at a full agreement for the solution of the controversy, he will choose the International Court of Justice as the next means of settlement, unless the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela jointly request that he refrain from doing so,” the UN statement read.
The UN disclosed that Nylander was the Norwegian Special Envoy to the Colombia peace process (2012-2016) and served as Norway’s Head of Mission in Bogota, Colombia (2006-2008). Mr. Nylander was a delegate of his country before the United Nations in New York (2001-2004), and at the Norwegian Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1999-2001). Born in 1969, Mr. Nylander is a lawyer from the University of Oslo and is fluent in English, Spanish and Norwegian.
Meanwhile, the appointment comes just about two weeks after Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, urged Venezuelans to strengthen their resolve to the claim of two-thirds of Guyana under the fake slogan ‘Venezuela’s sun rises in the Essequibo.’ Government officials had denounced the slogan saying it is false because it is built on lies; on the distortion of history; on the renunciation of solemn treaties and on the abandonment of sacred principles of international law. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister also used the occasion of a Foreign Ministry function to mark the 51st Anniversary of the Geneva Agreement, to peddle the outrageous falsity in Caracas “that the Geneva Agreement recognised the sovereignty that Venezuela had over the Essequibo and declared null, the Arbitral Award laid down in 1899”.
Guyana has repeatedly express its desire for this controversy to be settled juridically and through intense lobby, the United Nations late last year ruled that the Good Offices Process will be given one more year to work, failing which the matter will be sent to the International Court of Justice for a final decision. Both President David Granger and Foreign Minister, Carl Greenidge,have recognised that the Good Officer process allows Venezuela to prolong the Border controversy, while engaging in frequent acts of aggression. The President in particular, in addressing the issue of the fiftieth anniversary of the Geneva Agreement last year, said he was “fed up with Venezuelan aggression and harassment.”
When the UN announced late last year it was giving the Good Offices process one more year, Guyana hailed the decision saying “a new point of promise in our relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been reached.” “It has long been the accepted position of all Governments in Guyana that the best means of settlement of our controversy with Venezuela should be a reference of it to the International Court of Justice. We consider that controversy to be essentially a legal question and one eminently susceptible to a legal process of settlement,” the GoG statement said.
According to Guyana,there can be no higher tribunal for this purpose than the International Court of Justice–on which once sat our own distinguished son,Mohammed Shahabuddeen–to determine this matter on a definite basis. Government said too that: “We stand committed to using our best endeavours to fulfill its highest expectations. The Government will be writing formally to him as well as to the President of Venezuela to indicate our acceptance of this decision. We believe that, in taking this decision, the Secretary General has remained loyal to the sacred mission of the United Nations to uphold the law and maintain the peace between nations – small and large.” Guyana had said it will do everything in its power to ensure that the UN SG’s expectations, and those of his successor to whom the mandate of implementation now falls–as well as our own expectations,are fulfilled.

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