…Guyana to present from 2pm-5pm
…Venezuela opts not to defend, despite saying court has no jurisdiction

PUBLIC hearing on the question of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s jurisdiction in the case concerning the Arbitral Award of 3 October, 1899 (Guyana v. Venezuela) will open on Tuesday 30 June, 2020 at 1400hrs at the Peace Palace in The Hague, seat of the Court.
The Co-operative Republic of Guyana’s delegation will present its oral arguments from 14:00 to 17:00hrs, while the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has informed the Court that it will not participate in the oral proceedings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday in a release.

In view of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the hearing will take place in the court’s Great Hall of Justice via videoconference. Some members of the Court will be physically present, while the others will participate remotely. Guyana’s representatives will address the Court by video link.

Guyana is seeking final and binding judgment that the 1899 Arbitral Award, which established the location of the land boundary between the then British Guiana and Venezuela remains valid and binding, and that Guyana’s Essequibo region belongs to Guyana, and not Venezuela. Guyana had taken the 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 International Court of Justice.
In a press statement on June 20, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza contended that the ICJ took an unprecedented decision to hear the case via video conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Spanish-speaking country does not support. “This decision is unprecedented; it does not correspond to a new generally applicable practice; until now, it has not been applied to other cases that are before this important international judicial [court],” Arreaza stated.

Even so, the position mirrors that of the one taken in June 2018 when the country declined to participate in the hearing, based on the position that the ICJ lacks jurisdiction on the matter. In February 2020, the country said that it had no intention of appearing at the oral hearings. The case was filed by Guyana. The long-awaited hearing was initially set for March 23 – 27, 2020, but the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic derailed those plans, and it was rescheduled to June 30 by video conference.

The Court required the two countries to provide their arguments on jurisdiction as a first step. However, even in that instance, Venezuela has refused to participate, and the Court has moved forward with the proceedings nonetheless. In the press statement on June 20, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister said: “Venezuela’s clear position of not attending the Court has been concretised on the basis that it lacks jurisdiction… It sincerely invites the sister Cooperative Republic of Guyana to renew the negotiation to which both nations are obliged under the Geneva Agreement, the only international instrument specially signed to govern the territorial controversy…with the purpose of reaching amicably a practical, acceptable and satisfactory arrangement for both Republics.”
Guyana, however, has recognised the importance of settling the longstanding controversy that exists between the two countries.

DECEMBER 2018 INCURSION
As recent as December 2018, Guyana’s territorial integrity was violated when a Venezuelan Navy corvette, the Karina PC-14, made a hostile incursion into Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The incursion took place at approximately 144 kilometres (km) from the boundary which separates Guyana from Venezuela, and saw attempts by the Navy to land an helicopter on the unarmed oil survey ship. In a firm statement, Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Venezuela’s aggression as a violation of the Charter of the United Nations (UN), and general international law.
Meanwhile, in 2013, a petroleum exploration vessel, the RV Teknik Perdana, conducting a survey in the Roraima Block offshore, was intercepted by a Venezuelan Navy frigate and ordered to cease its activities. President David Granger has stated publicly: “Incursions have occurred not only in our maritime space but also on land. Illegal mining, illegal logging, illegal arms, narcotics, people and wildlife trafficking and the smuggling of precious minerals have continued; they have to stop…incursions must be deterred; insurrections must be suppressed; the State must remain secure.”
Guyana was keen on pointing out that 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), have all failed to end the controversy.

In 2018, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres referred the Guyana/Venezuela controversy to the ICJ. He acknowledged that the Good Offices Process had failed to achieve a peaceful settlement of the controversy. The upcoming 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.
“A favourable decision by the Court will be of tremendous benefit to Guyana. Guyana has suffered tremendously over the years at the hands of Venezuela from acts of intimidation, threats of military action, incursions into our sovereign territory and the stymieing of our economic development,” Guyana’s Foreign Secretary, Carl Greenidge recently stated.
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.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the United Nations Charter in June 1945 and began its activities in April 1946. The Court is composed of 15 judges elected for a nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations. The seat of the Court is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). The Court has a two-fold role: First, to settle, in accordance with international law, through judgments which have binding force and are without appeal for the parties concerned, legal disputes submitted to it by States; and second to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized United Nations organs and agencies of the system.