BELMOPAN, Belize -Foreign Affairs Minister, Eamon Courtenay, says Belize had anticipated Guatemala applying to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for permission to join the portion of the proceedings between Belize and Honduras that will determine sovereignty over the Sapodilla Cayes.
Foreign Minister Eamon Courtenay“At present, the application is being considered by our legal advisors and we expect that they will advise us what to do. It’s an application to join so the Court has to take a decision whether they will allow Guatemala to join or not,” Courtenay said.
“But it overlaps with the main case and so there is nothing new or strange about this. It’s for the Court to determine, but it will take place sometime next year for the court to decide, one way or another, whether they will allow Guatemala to join,” he added.
In November last year, Belize instituted proceedings against Honduras with regard to a dispute concerning sovereignty over the Sapodilla Cayes, which it describes as a group of cayes lying in the Gulf of Honduras at the southern tip of the Belize Barrier Reef.
In its application instituting proceedings, Belize states that, since the early 19th century, the Sapodilla Cayes have formed part of the territory of Belize, initially as part of the settlement of Belize and later the colony of British Honduras, and since 1981 as part of the independent State of Belize.
“Under international law, Belize is sovereign over the Sapodilla Cayes” and that “the Honduran claim to the Sapodilla Cayes, articulated in its 1982 Constitution, which remains in force as a matter of the internal law of Honduras, has no basis in international law,” Belize said in its application.
On Monday, the ICJ said that Guatemala, filed in the Registry of the Court an application for permission to intervene in the case concerning the sovereignty over the Sapodilla Cayes.
The ICJ said that pursuant to Article 62 of the Statute, whenever a state not party to a case considers that it has an interest of a legal nature which may be affected by the decision in the case, it may submit a request to the Court to be permitted to intervene.
In its application for permission to intervene, Guatemala recalls that on November 16, 2022, Belize instituted proceedings against Honduras concerning “sovereignty over the Sapodilla Cays or Cayes, a cluster of islands in the Gulf of Honduras, which Guatemala also claims”.
In these proceedings, Belize requests the Court to “adjudge and declare that, as between Belize and Honduras, Belize is sovereign over the Sapodilla Cayes”.
According to Guatemala, Belize’s submission overlaps with its submissions in the case concerning its border dispute with Belize.
“Both Belize and Guatemala claim sovereignty over the Sapodillas. In its application for permission to intervene, Guatemala contends that it has “a clear interest of a legal nature (in the Belize v. Honduras case) since . . . it has a longstanding claim of sovereignty over the Sapodillas, which is part of the subject-matter of the pending Guatemala/Belize case before the Court”, and which may be affected by a decision of the Court in the present case.
Guatemala further indicates that the object of its intervention is twofold, namely to protect the rights and interests of Guatemala over the Sapodilla Cays by all the legal means available, and to inform the Court of the nature and extent of Guatemala’s rights, which may be affected by the Court’s decision on the issue of sovereignty over the Sapodillas.
Guatemala’s application also seeks to ensure that the Court’s determinations do not touch upon or prejudice its legal rights and interests.
The ICJ notes that regarding the existence of a basis of jurisdiction between Guatemala and the parties to the present proceedings, Guatemala notes that while Guatemala and Belize have concluded a special agreement in the Guatemala/Belize case, there is no basis of jurisdiction between Guatemala and Honduras.
However, it contends that “the absence of such a link with Honduras is not a bar to Guatemala’s intervention, since the . . . application for permission to intervene is based on Article 62 of the [Court’s] Statute”.
The ICJ said that in accordance with Article 83 of the Rules of Court, Belize and Honduras have been invited to furnish written observations on Guatemala’s application for permission to intervene.
Meanwhile, Courtenay, says Belize has made its position clear on the ongoing border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela regarding the ownership of the Essequibo region.
“We have made our position as a country very clear, and we have also joined the resolutions and statements issued by CARICOM. We are emphatically in support of Guyana, emphatically in support of their territorial integrity and their sovereignty.
“Insofar as Venezuela is concerned, we believe that this process should be resolved through the International Court of Justice, and we would encourage Venezuela to respect that process. And in the interim, to abide by the interim measures, the provisional measures that were issued. That is to say that nothing should be done to affect what is happening until the court gives its final decision,” he added.
The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela are due to meet in St. Vincent on Thursday, with President Irfaan Ali already indicating that Guyana would not be removing the border dispute issue from before the ICCJ.
