The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has announced that public hearings on whether it has the jurisdiction to adjudicate Guyana’s border controversy with Venezuela is to begin on June 30, at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
In a press statement issued on Friday, the ICJ, also known as the World Court, said 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 of 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.
It added that the programme of the hearings will be announced at a later stage.
A previous hearing planned for March 23 was deferred due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The ICJ will determine whether the Court has jurisdiction over the case filed by Guyana on March 29, 2018 to obtain from the Court a final and binding judgment 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 Antonio Guterres, in January 2018, that the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela should be decided by the World Court. In taking the decision, the Secretary-General was exercising the power vested in him in the 1966 Geneva Agreement between Guyana, Venezuela and the United Kingdom to decide how the controversy should be settled.
