THE Government of Guyana is on track for the submission of its Memorial to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case concerning the Arbitral Award of October 1899 between Guyana and Venezuela.

By an order dated June 19, 2018 the ICJ fixed November 19, 2018 and April 18, 2019 as the respective time-limits for the filing of a Memorial by the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and a Counter-Memorial by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Venezuela has indicated that it will not participate in the court’s proceedings.

On Monday, during a press conference, Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge said that the preparations are moving a pace.

“The preparation of the Memorial by Guyana is well on the way and we shall make the deadline without any difficulty. The teams are working on it, we have added to the teams, by way of strengthening the ministry’s own capacity,” Minister Greenidge explained.

Pointing out that there has been a number of meetings, since the order was issued by the ICJ, he disclosed that another meeting is set for later this month – September 21, being a tentative date. During that meeting, the draft Memorial would be examined.

The written pleadings, in the form of Memorials will address the question of the jurisdiction of the Court in hearing the case bought by the State of Guyana.

In March, Venezuela indicated that it will not participate in the judicial proceedings, however, the Guyana Government has made it clear that it will proceed with the case, noting that under Article 53 of the Statute of the Court, “whenever one of the parties does not appear before the Court, or fails to defend its case, the other party may call upon the court to decide in favour of its claim.”

“Guyana is fully committed to the rule of law in international relations, including the peaceful resolution of disputes in conformity with international law. It trusts that the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations, will resolve the controversy with Venezuela in accordance with the law, in a manner that is fair and equitable. It hopes that, in due course, Venezuela will reconsider its position and decide to appear in Court and defend its case. The Court’s rules allow for that,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said in a statement.

Guyana said that if Venezuela persists in its refusal to participate in the matter, the rules provide for the court to proceed, after a full hearing of the case, to a final judgment that is legally binding on both the participating and nonparticipating parties.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to reiterate that Guyana fully respects the decision of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to choose the International Court of Justice as the means of settlement of the controversy and is confident that the court is fully empowered to decide the case,” the Foreign Ministry added.

Guyana had filed an application with the ICJ on March 29, 2018, requesting the court to confirm the legal validity and binding effect of the 1899 Arbitral Award regarding the boundary between Guyana and Venezuela.

Guyana is contending that the 1899 Award was “a full, perfect, and final settlement” of all questions relating to determining the boundary line between the colony of British Guiana and Venezuela. It is also Guyana’s position that, between November 1900 and June 1904, a joint Anglo-Venezuelan Boundary Commission “identified, dem`arcated and permanently fixed the boundary established by the… Award” before the signing of a Joint Declaration by the Commissioners on 10 January 1905 (referred to by Guyana as the “1905 Agreement”).
Guyana is further contending that in 1962, for the first time, Venezuela contested the Award as “arbitrary” and “null and void”.

This, according to the applicant, led to the signing of the Agreement to resolve the controversy between Venezuela and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland over the frontier between Venezuela and British Guiana at Geneva on 17 February 1966 (the Geneva Agreement), which “provided for recourse to a series of dispute settlement mechanisms to finally resolve the controversy”.

Additionally, Guyana submits that the Geneva Agreement authorised the United Nations Secretary-General to decide which appropriate dispute resolution mechanism to adopt for the peaceful settlement of the dispute, in accordance with Article 33 of the United Nations Charter.