HAGUE, CMC – The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) Friday set November 14 because the date for holding public hearings into Guyana’s request to dam a number of questions in Venezuela’s December 3, 2023 referendum on the border controversy.
“The hearings will likely be dedicated to the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by Guyana on October 30, 2023,” the ICJ stated in a press release.
It stated that Guyana, in its request, had been informed that the Venezuelan authorities, by its Nationwide Electoral Council, has revealed an inventory of 5 questions that it intends to place earlier than the individuals of Venezuela in a “Consultative Referendum” subsequent month.
“In response to the applicant, the aim of this referendum is to “acquire responses that might help Venezuela’s resolution to desert [the current proceedings before the Court], and to resort as an alternative to unilateral measures to ‘resolve’ the controversy with Guyana by formally annexing and integrating into Venezuela the entire territory at difficulty in these proceedings, which contains greater than two-thirds of Guyana,” the ICJ stated.
The Courtroom stated the hearings will happen on the Peace Palace in The Hague.
Guyana had requested the ICJ to listen to its software as a matter of urgency forward of the deliberate December 3 referendum.
In response to the ICJ, Guyana is requesting that the Courtroom signifies that “Venezuela shall not proceed with the Consultative Referendum deliberate for December 3, 2023, in its current kind,” and “particularly, Venezuela shall not embody the First, Third or Fifth questions within the Consultative Referendum.
“Query 5 proposes the creation of the Venezuelan state of Guyana Essequibo and an accelerated plan for giving Venezuelan citizenship and identification playing cards to the Guyanese inhabitants.”
Guyana additionally needs the Courtroom to point that “Venezuela shall not take any actions which might be supposed to organize or permit the train of sovereignty or de facto management over any territory that was awarded to British Guiana within the 1899 Arbitral Award.
“Venezuela shall chorus from any motion which could irritate or prolong the dispute earlier than the Courtroom or make it tougher to resolve,” the ICJ stated Guyana outlined in its request.
Venezuela’s deliberate referendum and its authorised questions for the referendum later this yr have set off a wave of criticisms, with the Guyana authorities accusing Venezuela of attempting to annex elements of the nation’s territory in contravention of worldwide regulation.
The 15-member Caribbean Neighborhood (CARICOM), the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Group of American States (OAS) have additionally rejected the referendum stating that worldwide regulation strictly prohibits the Authorities of 1 State from unilaterally seizing, annexing, or incorporating the territory of one other state and famous that the referendum would open the door to the attainable violation of this elementary tenet of worldwide regulation.
In the meantime, Overseas Affairs and Worldwide Cooperation Minister Hugh Todd stated Friday that the bipartisan ministerial advisory committee on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy is totally useful and fulfilling its mandate.
His feedback adopted the postponement of a rare sitting of the Nationwide Meeting, which was set to cross a movement to solidify Guyana’s stance on the border controversy.
The parliamentary opposition had proposed throughout the movement {that a} non-partisan fee be established to make sure its participation.
“Now we have already established a bipartisan ministerial advisory committee on the Guyana/Venezuela controversy, which the President Ali Administration inherited from the (David) Granger administration, and we’ve left it intact,” Todd stated, declaring that the already-established mechanism contains two opposition Members of Parliament.
The advisory committee consists additionally of a number of seasoned diplomats who present crucial recommendation to the federal government.
“That committee meets on issues referring to the case itself earlier than the ICJ and [other] associated points,” Todd stated, noting that the creation of a fee will solely duplicate that which already exists.
“So, what we’ve beneficial to the opposition is that…we have already got a mechanism in place, so we don’t have to duplicate it as a result of it could be the identical individuals who are actually on this ministerial advisory committee would even have to sit down on this fee.”
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