THE Alliance For Change (AFC) said it is confident that Guyana will emerge victorious when the time comes for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on the decades-old Guyana/Venezuela territorial controversy.
In a statement on Friday, the AFC – a key partner in the coalition government — said it welcomes the decision of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General (SG) António Guterres to refer the territorial controversy to the ICJ, saying that Guyana has an excellent case against Venezuela.

“The party is confident that Guyana’s case will result in an unequivocal juridical settlement which will uphold the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award,” the AFC stated.
The UNSG’s Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric on Tuesday announced that Mr. Guterres after carefully analyzing developments in 2017, concluded that significant progress had not been made at the level of the Good Offices, and as a result, took a decision to refer the territorial controversy to the ICJ. The decision was made in keeping with a commitment made by the former SG Ban Ki-moon in December 2016.

In its statement, the AFC saluted the government of the day, in particular President David Granger and Second Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge, for their steadfast and robust pursuit of the course of action in response to Venezuela’s illegal claim to Guyana’s sovereign territory, which was settled since 1899. The 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award gave more than 90 per cent of an area to then British Guiana (now Guyana) – a decision that Venezuela accepted for more than half a century.

“The AFC stands with its coalition partners and all other patriotic Guyanese in adamant defence of Guyana’s patrimony. The party is confident that Guyana’s case will result in an unequivocal juridical settlement which will uphold the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award,” the alliance stated. It reaffirmed that Venezuela’s contention that the 1899 Arbitral Award is null and void lacks basis, credibility and is inconsistent with the tenets of international law and sovereignty. “The party remains in resolute defence of Guyana’s territorial integrity and will not countenance any country seeking to strong-arm our beloved nation out of what is our own legal and internationally recognised territory,” the AFC stated.

The UN SG’s spokesman, in making the announcement had explained that the 1966 Geneva Agreement empowers the UN Secretary-General to choose a means of peaceful settlement from amongst those contemplated in Article 33 of the Charter of the United Nations. “The Geneva Agreement also provides that if the means so chosen does not lead to a solution of the controversy, the secretary-general is to choose another means of settlement,” he further explained.

He said it was on that basis that the former UN SG Ban Ki-moon communicated to the parties on December 15, 2016, that the Good Offices process, which had been conducted since 1990, would continue for one final year, until the end of 2017, with a strengthened mandate of mediation. Ban Ki-moon had said too that if by the end of 2017, his successor, Secretary-General António Guterres, concluded that significant progress had not been made towards arriving at a full agreement for the solution of the controversy, he would choose the ICJ as the next means of settlement, unless the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela jointly requested that he refrain from doing so.

Mr. Guterres has concluded that no significant progress had been made and that judicial settlement was the next best option for a final settlement of the long-standing territorial controversy between Guyana and Venezuela.