Guyana asks World Court to throw out Venezuela’s “concocted” request for Britain to be made party in border case

Last Updated on Friday, 18 November 2022, 16:15 by Denis Chabrol

Guyana on Friday told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that, contrary to Venezuela’s position,  the United Kingdom ceased having any role to play in the border controversy over the Essequibo Region since 1966 when independence was granted.

Lawyers for Guyana told the ICJ, the United Nations top judicial body, that the UK now had no responsibility for the 1966 Geneva Agreement which states that that court should ultimately be used to settle the controversy over the finality of the 1899 Arbitral Award of the land boundary between Venezuela and then British Guiana.

” I will be blunt: the reality is, in our submission, that Venezuela does not really truly regard the United Kingdom as an indispensable third party to these proceedings. The reality — as everyone in this room knows — is that the United Kingdom has no legal skin in this
game, and Venezuela and its counsel know that. The reality is that Venezuela’s preliminary objections are a concoction, a late attempt to derail the process, to prevent this Court from delivering the impartial and authoritative ruling which will finally bring this controversy to a legal end,” Professor of International Law at the University  College London, Philippe Sands told the court.

Mr. Paul S. Reichler, Attorney at Law, of the United States-headquartered law firm, Foley Hoag LLP said on December 18, 2020, the ICJ had already ruled that it has jurisdiction. He added that it was ironic that Venezuela purports to find ongoing British rights and obligations in the Arbitral Award and the international boundary that it established, despite Britain’s repeated statements, since 1966, that it has no such legal interests in the disputed territory.

Ms. Christina L. Beharry of Foley Hoag LLP, stressed that the court has already decided that it has jurisdiction to hear the case but Venezuela was now asking the court to overturn its own final decision on December 18, 2020. “Guyana therefore respectfully submits that
Venezuela’s objections are precluded and should be rejected by the Court on this basis,” she said.

Guyana’s agent Carl Greenidge welcomed Venezuela’s belated decision to appear before the court two years after Guyana filed the case as a sign that Caracas recognises that judicial body. “Although Venezuela seeks to challenge the court’s exercise of jurisdiction over Guyana’s claims by its participation in these proceedings, it is apparent that it accepts the legitimacy of the court’s role, it’s power to dispense justice, and the binding effect of the court’s orders and judgements,” he said. In that regard, he said he hoped that Venezuela would continue to remain engaged with the court to hear the merits of Guyana’s case even after the anticipated dismissal of that Spanish-speaking nation’s preliminary objection.

Mr Greenidge noted that just one week before the hearing filed a “raft of new documents the vast majority of which have nothing to do with the preliminary objections newly raised.”