In a long awaited decision, the outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has decided that the Good Offices process to find a solution to the decades-old border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela will be given one more year and if by the end of 2017 “significant progress” has not been made, the case will move to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Guyana this evening welcomed the decision.
For the last two years, Guyana has been pressing for a judicial settlement of the controversy, arguing that the Good Offices process has yielded no progress in decades and that Caracas continues to destabilise this country’s progress. Georgetown had argued that for its entire 50 years of independence, Venezuela has used the border controversy to undermine this country’s development.
The appeal for a judicial settlement was upped when President David Granger was elected to office in May of 2015. His accession to office coincided with the issuing of a maritime decree by the Nicolas Maduro administration seeking to claim almost all of Guyana’s Atlantic waters. Guyana launched a diplomatic offensive to isolate Caracas and pressure it to resile from its increasingly hostile stance. At the same time, Guyana formally wrote Secretary General Ban appealing for a judicial settlement to the controversy, Venezuela has sought a continuation of the Good Offices process and opposes a move to the ICJ.
Observers say that Ban has made an attempt to address the concerns on both sides and his decision would be seen as a key development for Georgetown as the move towards a judicial settlement may be just a year away.
The text of the statement issued by the Office of the Spokesperson of the United Nations Secretary-General on the decision of the Secretary-General on the Guyana/Venezuela border controversy follows:
Fifty years ago, shortly before Guyana’s independence in 1966, the Geneva Agreement was signed with the aim of amicably resolving the controversy that had arisen as the result of the Venezuelan contention that the Arbitral Award of 1899 about the frontier between Venezuela and what is now Guyana is null and void. The 1966 Geneva Agreement confers on the Secretary-General of the United Nations the power to choose means of settlement of the controversy from among those that are contemplated in Article 33 of the United Nations Charter.
Within the framework of the Geneva Agreement, a Good Offices Process under the Secretary-General has been in place for the last 25 years in order to find a solution to the controversy. This process has so far involved three Personal Representatives of the Secretary-General (PRSG). In spite of these efforts, it has not been possible to bridge the differences between the parties.
The Secretary-General has engaged in intensive efforts to find a way forward that would be most conducive to finding a solution. To that end, the Secretary-General held a trilateral meeting with President David Granger of Guyana and President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela in the margins of the 70th General Assembly. The Secretary-General has subsequently dispatched several high-level missions to both capitals and held meetings at the highest level with both parties. In November of this year, he conducted an extensive stocktaking of the Good Offices Process.
On the basis of that stocktaking, the Secretary-General has reached the conclusion that the Good Offices Process will continue for one final year, with a new PRSG with a strengthened mandate of mediation, who will be appointed by the Secretary-General-designate shortly after he takes office. If, by the end of 2017, the Secretary-General concludes that significant progress has not been made toward arriving at a full agreement for the solution of the controversy, he will choose the International Court of Justice as the next means of settlement, unless both parties jointly request that he refrain from doing so.
The Secretary-General has discussed these conclusions with the Secretary-General-designate, who has expressed his concurrence with them.
The Secretary-General and the Secretary-General-designate applaud Guyana and Venezuela for addressing the controversy through peaceful means. The Secretary-General and the Secretary-General-designate are committed to see the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela resolved.
Meanwhile, Guyana has accepted the decision of the UN SG.
A statement released by the Government of Guyana follows:
Statement by Government of Guyana on the Decision by the UNSG
We are pleased to be able to convey to the people of Guyana that a new point of promise in our relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been reached.
It has long been the accepted position of all Governments in Guyana that the best means of settlement of our controversy with Venezuela should be a reference of it to the International Court of Justice. We consider that controversy to be essentially a legal question and one eminently susceptible to a legal process of settlement.
There can be no higher tribunal for this purpose than the International Court of Justice (on which once sat our own distinguished son Mohammed Shahabuddeen) to determine this matter on a definite basis. The Secretary General of the United Nations acting under the 1966 Geneva Agreement has informed the President of his decision to give the ‘good offices’ process one last period of twelve months, that is to the end of 2017.
If, at the end of that period, the Secretary-General concludes that significant progress has not been made towards arriving at a full agreement for the solution of the controversy, he will choose the International Court of Justice as the next means of settlement, unless the Governments of Guyana and Venezuela jointly request that he refrain from doing so.
The Government of Guyana accepts the decision of the Secretary General. We stand committed to using our best endeavours to fulfill its highest expectations. The Government will be writing formally to him as well as to the President of Venezuela to indicate our acceptance of this decision.
We believe that, in taking this decision, the Secretary General has remained loyal to the sacred mission of the United Nations to uphold the law and maintain the peace between nations – small and large.
Guyana will do everything in its power to ensure that his expectations, and those of his successor to whom the mandate of implementation now falls – as well as our expectations are fulfilled. The Government calls upon all Guyanese to support the process that now lies ahead in the confidence that it will lead to a just and binding resolution of the discords that have plagued our development for so long. It is a fitting advance in this fiftieth year of our independence.
May God continue to bless our nation in this noble cause.
