ICJ President calls for meeting with Guyana, Venezuela

Border controversy case

The President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Justice Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf has invited the legal teams representing Guyana and Venezuela in the border controversy case, to attend a meeting with him later this month in The Hague, Netherlands.
According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry on Wednesday, the meeting has been set for June 18, 2018. It was explained that the purpose of the meeting is to fix the schedule for the filing of the written pleadings in the border controversy case between the two South American neighbours.
Such a meeting is part of the Court’s normal procedure following the filing of a case, the Ministry said in a statement.
The meeting with the President of the Court will be limited to the matter of the schedule.
Guyana’s legal team is being led by former Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir

Shridath Ramphal.
The team is a holdover from the Foley Hoag law firm delegation that successfully petitioned the United Nations in Guyana’s maritime controversy with Suriname. Other members of the team are Paul Reichler and Payam Akvan.
Guyana had initially earmarked US$15 million, monies collected as part of a signing bonus from US oil giant ExxonMobil, for legal fees. However that amount was deemed inadequate and as such, Government secured a supplementary provision of $788 million from the National Assembly last month.
On March 29, Guyana filed an application, requesting the World Court to confirm the legal validity and binding effect of the 1899 Arbitral Award regarding its boundary with Venezuela.
The 1899 Award establishes the border between the two countries, but Venezuela is claiming that it is null and void. The two countries, under the 1966 Geneva Agreement, turned to the UN Secretary General to resolve what became a controversy under the Charter of the UN.
Earlier this year, the UN Secretary General António Guterres announced he was

referring the decades-old controversy to the ICJ. This move followed unsuccessful attempts to resolve the matter through the various mechanisms outlined in the Geneva Agreement signed between Guyana and Venezuela.
However, Venezuela had come out rejecting the decision to have the border controversy settled by the World Court. Nevertheless, Venezuela seems to have backtracked on its position, saying on Tuesday that it will be attending the meeting with the World Court that is aimed “…at listening to the different points of view of the parties related to procedural

issues.” The invitation was sent on Monday.

Correct move
Meanwhile, President David Granger on Wednesday morning told reporters at the State House that the decision of the UN Secretary General to send the matter to the World Court was the correct move at this point.
“We want to move forward and we want future generations to be able to live in a country that is not under the shadow of Venezuelan threat. We feel that this is the correct decision and we want to move ahead as quickly as possible,” the Guyanese Head of State said.