Case Management for Guyana/Venezuela border controversy for January 15

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is set to host the Case Management Conference for the substantive hearing of the Guyana/ Venezuela Border Controversy on Friday, January 15, 2021.

This was disclosed by Advisor on Border, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Carl Greenidge, in a letter to the Editor dated, December 25.

“What we now know is that the case management will take place on January 15 2021 and that the Court will then decide on the time to be allocated for the different elements of the hearing – presentation by the two sides and responses then deliberation by the judges,” Mr. Greenidge, who is also an Agent to the ICJ, stated in his letter to the Stabroek News.

The letter centred around the length of time the matter could take before the ICJ, which the Advisor noted, could be two to three and a half years.

Guyana moved to the ICJ with its case in March 2018, challenging the non-participating Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, over its disagreement on “the legal validity and binding effect of the October 3, 1899 Award.

Venezuela had maintained that the ICJ was without jurisdiction to hear the case and had not participated in the matter.

However, in the December 18 last 12-4 majority ruling, the ICJ upheld that it has jurisdiction to entertain Guyana’s contention concerning the validity of the 1899 Award about the frontier between British Guiana and Venezuela and the related question of the definitive settlement of the land boundary.

This, the court said was in keeping with a recommendation with United Nations Secretary-General Mr. António Guterres.

In January 2018, Mr. Guterres, acting within the authority bestowed upon him by the Geneva Agreement, chose adjudication by the Court as the final means for resolving the controversy.

The ICJ pointed out too, that both Guyana and Venezuela had agreed to the 1966 Geneva Agreement which showed that both parties had accepted the possibility of the controversy being resolved by means of judicial settlement.

Guyana maintains that a juridical settlement of this matter is the only recourse remaining as it has exhausted all other measures.