The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has set a date for Oral Hearings on jurisdiction in the case of the long-running border controversy between this country and Venezuela. According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the ICJ has notified Guyana that hearings will be held in The Hague, the Netherlands from March 23 to 27, 2020.

It 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, in January 2018, that the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela should be decided by the World Court.  In taking his 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.(Stabroek News)…[+]