THE International Court of Justice (ICJ) has set public hearings on the long-awaited Arbitral Award of 1899 (Guyana v. Venezuela) case for June 30, 2020, by video conference.

The hearings were initially scheduled for March 23 to 27, 2020 but the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic derailed those plans. In a release on Friday, the ICJ stated that the public hearings will open on Tuesday June 30, 2020 at 14:00 hours at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the seat of the Court. The programme of the hearings will be announced at a later stage.

“In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the hearings will take place in the Great Hall of Justice using videoconference technology and with the physical presence of some Members of the Court. Members of the media and the public will be able to follow the oral proceedings on internet through a live webstream,” the ICJ advised.

The hearing will determine whether the Court has jurisdiction over the case filed by Guyana on March 29, 2018. Guyana seeks to obtain, from the Court, a final and binding judgement that the 1899 Arbitral Award, which established the location of the land boundary between then-British Guiana and Venezuela, remains valid and binding, and that Guyana’s Essequibo region belongs to Guyana, and not Venezuela.

Guyana brought its case to the Court following the decision by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in January 2018, that the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela should be decided by the ICJ.

In taking his decision, the Secretary-General was exercising the power vested in him in the 1966 Geneva Agreement between Guyana, Venezuela and the United Kingdom (UK) to decide how the dispute should be settled. Venezuela has claimed, in a letter to the Court, that the Secretary-General exceeded his authority under the Geneva Agreement, and that the Court therefore lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate Guyana’s lawsuit.

On this basis, Venezuela indicated that it will not participate in the proceedings. On November 19, 2018, Guyana submitted its Memorial to the Court refuting Venezuela’s arguments and demonstrating that the Court has jurisdiction.

Under well-established judicial precedent, the Court will proceed to decide if it has jurisdiction over Guyana’s case, irrespective of whether or not Venezuela participates in the proceedings. If it decides that it has jurisdiction, the Court will proceed to rule on the merits of those claims, and decide whether the validity of the 1899 Arbitral Award and the border between the two States should be confirmed.

Under the United Nations (UN) Charter and the Court’s own rules, its final judgements both on jurisdiction and the merits will be legally binding on Guyana and Venezuela, whether or not Venezuela participates in the proceedings. In its submission, Guyana pointed out that the boundary with Venezuela was established by an arbitral tribunal constituted pursuant to a treaty concluded by Venezuela and Great Britain in 1897.

It said the record would show that Venezuela accepted the unanimous award rendered by five eminent jurists on October 3, 1899. The Spanish-speaking country had also participated in a joint commission to demarcate the boundary on the ground, and insisted on the award’s strict implementation.

Decades later, Venezuela, in anticipation of Guyana’s independence, ceased recognising the award’s validity and binding nature, using that pretext to lay claim to more than two-thirds of Guyana’s territory. The tension intensified after significant quantities of oil was discovered by U.S. oil giant, ExxonMobil, offshore Guyana in 2015.

Guyana was keen on pointing out that for efforts over more than half-a-century, including a four-year Mixed Commission (1966-1970), a 12-year moratorium (1970-1982), a seven-year process of consultations on a means of settlement (1983-1990), and a 27-year Good Offices Process under the UN Secretary-General’s authority (1990-2017), all have failed to end the controversy. Since Venezuela made its claim, there have been several incidents involving military force, coercion and bullying by the Spanish-speaking country against Guyana.

Military Force and the threat of force included Ankoko Island, Cuyuni occupation (1966); the Sponsored Rupununi uprising 1969; the Leoni Decree – the attempt to seize territorial sea (1968); assault on Eteringbang outpost 1970 & innumerable subsequent military acts; the military seizure of Technics Perdana — seismic survey vessel of Anadarko in 2013; and most recently, the attempted boarding of seismic vessel Ramform Tethys (December 22, 2018).

The Government of Guyana is confident of a win against Venezuela in both cases – the jurisdictional matter and the substantive matter treating with the validity of the Arbitral Award of 1899.