By Feona Morrison
In a significant development in the continuing border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has given Guyana until December 9, 2024 to respond to Venezuela’s Counter-Memorial. This will allow Guyana to address all aspects of the Spanish-speaking nation’s pleadings that were filed in April 2024, thoroughly and effectively.
The Essequibo region contains abundant resources and accounts for two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass.
Guyana filed its Memorial in 2018, asking the Netherland-based court to confirm, in a final and binding judgment, the full legal validity of the October 3, 1899 Arbitral Award that established the international boundary between Guyana and Venezuela more than a century ago.
From 2018 to the present, Venezuela has made many preliminary objections, including the claim that the ICJ, the United Nations (UN) principal judicial organ, lacks jurisdiction over the matter. The court, however, determined that it had jurisdiction over the majority of Guyana’s claims.
After the filing of Venezuela’s Counter-Memorial in April of this year, on June 11, 2024, the ICJ’s President, Justice Nawaf Salam held a meeting with the agents of the parties to ascertain their views on the subsequent procedure in the case.
At this meeting, Guyana’s representatives stated that a reply was necessary in order to respond to arguments made by Venezuela in its Counter-Memorial and that Guyana would require, for the preparation of its reply, a period of six months from the date of the filing of Venezuela’s Counter-Memorial or, preferably, until the end of October 2024.
The agent of Venezuela indicated that his government also considered that a second round of written pleadings was necessary and asked for a period of 12 months, from the filing of the reply, for the submission of the rejoinder of Venezuela. In line with the ICJ’s procedural schedule, Venezuela has been given until August 11, 2025, to submit its rejoinder.
The court has now reserved the subsequent procedure for further decision.
The 1899 Arbitral Award, a significant ruling that established the border between what was then British Guiana (now Guyana) and Venezuela, is where the controversy first began.
Venezuela had agreed to and signed the Arbitral Award.
On February 14, 1962, however, Venezuela notified the UN Secretary-General that it believed there was a “dispute” pertaining to “the demarcation of the frontier between Venezuela and British Guiana” between the United Kingdom (UK) and itself. Venezuela maintained that that the border with Guyana, a former colony of the UK, was fraudulently imposed by the British.
On November 13, 1962, the UK Government said that it did not agree that there could be any dispute over the question settled by the Arbitral Award and that the western boundary of British Guiana with Venezuela had been finally settled by the said Arbitral Award.
On February 17, 1966, the representatives of the UK, Venezuela, and British Guiana signed the Geneva Agreement following several unsuccessful attempts to resolve the issue.
Shortly before gaining independence, on February 17, 1966, Guyana signed the Geneva Agreement. In the decades that followed, attempts were made to settle the controversy using the various methods specified in the Geneva Agreement.
Ultimately, in January 2018, Guyana handed the case over to the UN Secretary-General, who would select a dispute resolution process in accordance with Article 33 of the UN Charter, since no agreement could be achieved in accordance with the process specified in the agreement.
He chose the ICJ to bring final resolution to the controversy.
As a result, in 2018, Guyana asked the ICJ to “confirm the legal validity and binding effect of the Award regarding the Boundary between the Colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela, of October 3, 1899,” in an application to institute proceedings against Venezuela.
A final decision in this significant case might take several years.
Guyana had asked the World Court for provisional measures after Venezuela’s National Assembly, on September 21, 2023, passed a resolution for a referendum on the territory awarded to British Guiana in 1899, now part of Guyana since its independence in 1966.
Five questions were released by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council for the referendum that was held on December 3, 2023. Particularly troubling are questions three and five, which seek to validate Venezuela’s illegitimate claim to Guyana’s oil-rich Essequibo region.
Question five asks for permission from Venezuelans to establish a new state in Guyana’s Essequibo region, which will be known as Guayana Esequiba, incorporate it into Venezuela, and grant its residents citizenship. Question three asks for approval for Venezuela’s reluctance to acknowledge the ICJ’s jurisdiction over the matter. Approximately 125,000 of Guyana’s 800,000 residents live in Essequibo. Pending a final decision in the case, the ICJ has ordered Venezuela to refrain from taking any action which would modify the situation that currently prevails in the territory in dispute, whereby Guyana administers and exercises control over that area.
The international community has backed Guyana in its efforts to draw attention to Venezuela’s activities, which are wholly outside the bounds of the rule of law and pose a threat to the security and peace of the Latin American and Caribbean Region. Through the recently signed Argyle Declaration, Guyana, and Venezuela, among other things, reiterated their commitment to the Region remaining a Zone of Peace and agreed to continue dialogue on any other pending matters of mutual importance to the two countries. Additionally, both countries decided they will not, directly or indirectly, threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances, including those consequential to any existing controversies between the two states.
However, recently, the government of Guyana has taken note of actions by Venezuela to promulgate “the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba.” Venezuela, among other things, continues to increase its military presence near the border with Guyana.
