Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said on Monday that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is expected to hold one final round of oral hearings before delivering its judgment in the border case with Venezuela, after Caracas filed its last written pleading in the case.
“In accordance with its standard procedures, the Court, upon returning from its summer recess, will schedule oral hearings on the merits of the case, to be followed by its deliberations and the issuance of its final Judgment, which will be binding on the parties under international law,” the Guyana government said.
The Foreign Ministry said Venezuela submitted its rejoinder on August 11, responding to Guyana’s reply filed in December 2024. The rejoinder is the final written exchange in the proceedings over whether the 1899 Arbitral Award setting the boundary between the two South American neighbors is valid, the Ministry said.
Venezuela accepted the 1899 award for decades before declaring it null and void in 1962, laying claim to more than two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass in the resource-rich Essequibo region.
Guyana-Venezuela land boundary was settled 124 years ago
The United Nations referred the case to the ICJ in 2018 after decades of failed bilateral talks. Venezuela had maintained since then that the ICJ does not have jurisdiction to hear the case. This position was rejected by the Court in a 2020 ruling.
The Guyana government said Venezuela’s filing ensures the court will have “the factual and legal arguments of both parties” when issuing its final judgment, which it described as “fully authoritative and incontestable”.
In December 2023, the court ordered Venezuela not to take any action that would alter Guyana’s administration of the territory. Despite the order, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in April 2024 signed a law seeking to incorporate the Essequibo into Venezuela and later appointed a “governor” of the region after claiming it held an election, despite the court saying explicitly that it should not do that.
The ICJ ruling could come as soon as 2026, Guyana’s agent to the court, former Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge, said earlier this year.
