Guyana can go it alone at World Court

Citing the Philippines’ case against China, Ambassador Cedric Joseph last evening stated that Guyana can unilaterally present to the World Court its case on the border controversy in the absence of Venezuelan participation. According to Joseph, a precedent exists for such action and as long as jurisdiction is acknowledged, Guyana has “to make the first move to the court.” At the time he was speaking at the University of Guyana’s second conversation on Law and Society titled Guyana’s Borders: Boundaries, Barriers, or Bridges, held at the Theatre Guild last evening. As part of a panel of four speakers, including Major General (retired) Joseph Singh, Ambassador Keith George and Paulette Henry, Joseph responded to a series of questions from the audience. One of the questions asked centred on what actions Guyana could take if Venezuela rejected a recommendation on Tuesday from Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the border controversy with Guyana be forwarded to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also known as the World Court. Guyana has welcomed the referral of the controversy to the World Court, something it has been seeking over the last four years. In a statement on Wednesday the Venezuelan government criticized the action of SG Guterres and his predecessor Ban Ki-moon. It was Ban who in a December 15, 2016 communique directed that the matter be sent to the ICJ if the Good Offices process for the controversy yielded no substantial results by the end of 2017. According to Venezuela the criteria contained in that communique exceeded the powers granted to its investiture, contravening the spirit, purpose and reason of the Geneva Agreement. They, however, did not reject the recommendation instead the Maduro government went