Amandala is on record as being one of the main media houses that has kept the Belize-Guatemala issue on the front-burner. We are not here to promote the Government of Belize’s official position – we are here to represent the voices of the Belizean people, all of them collectively, and each of them individually. We’ve dedicated a lot of space to the Government’s official position, as detailed by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, Foreign Affairs Minister Wilfred Elrington, and Belize’s Chief Negotiator, Alfredo Martinez. Several of our columnists have also been writing extensively about this very important national issue. As Belize and Guatemala are talking about taking the case to the ICJ, the responsibility of our newspaper is to facilitate the public discourse on the matter, and to share with you as much as information we can on the relevant aspects of this new debate.
It is in this vein that we start this series: ICJ STATS, which is a follow-up from our front-page article under the same caption, carried in the Sunday, November 2, issue of Amandala. Through this dedicated series in our newspaper, Amandala will attempt to build your knowledge base about the ICJ, especially as it relates to the Belize-Guatemala claim. We will also include historical information about the Belize-Guatemala dispute, as well as current ICJ news relevant to our understanding.
We begin with sharing some fundamentals:
What kind of creature is the ICJ?
According to the website of the ICJ, the court is “the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN).” Established in June 1945, it came out of the Charter of the United Nations. It actually began operating in April 1946. The court sits at “The Peace Palace” in The Hague, in The Netherlands.
The court has the power to settle disputes between nations. For the most part, decisions are to be made based on principles of international law. States can decide whether they want to give the ICJ compulsory jurisdiction in disputes with other nations. In that event, the consent of the other party, or a special agreement or compromis is not required to go to the ICJ.
In the case of Belize and Guatemala, a special agreement is required, according to GOB officials, because neither Belize nor Guatemala gave the ICJ compulsory jurisdiction.
The ICJ can give decisions that lay out its advice to disputing parties, but if the parties going to the court agree – the court could also issue a binding ruling. Whether the ICJ gives a binding declaration depends on the agreement between the parties.
The official languages of the court are English and French.
Procedural matters
The proceeding is extracted from ICJ info, and modified for our context: The ICJ is competent to entertain a dispute only if the states concerned have accepted its jurisdiction…by entering into a special agreement (compromis) to submit the dispute to the Court…
Proceedings may be instituted…through the notification of a special agreement: this document, which is of a bilateral nature [involving both countries], can be lodged with the court by either of the state parties to the proceedings, or by both of them.
A special agreement must indicate the subject of the dispute and the parties involved. Since there is neither an “applicant” state nor a “respondent” state, in the court’s publications their names are separated by an oblique stroke at the end of the official title of the case, e.g., Belize/Guatemala…
After the oral proceedings, the court deliberates in camera and then delivers its judgment at a public sitting. The judgment is final, binding on the parties to a case and without appeal (at most it may be subject to interpretation or revision). Any judge wishing to do so may append an opinion to the judgment.
Several things can affect the proceedings: One party can make a preliminary objection to prevent the court from delivering judgment on the merits of the case. One party can, for example, argue that the court lacks jurisdiction or that the application is not admissible. It is the court that decides on this issue.
A third state might want to intervene in the dispute, because it might claim that it has an interest and may be affected by the decision of the ICJ. For example, Honduras may suggest that its territorial sea rights might be affected in a territorial case between Belize and Guatemala.
The sources of law that the court must apply are: international treaties and conventions in force; international custom; the general principles of law; and judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists. Moreover, if the parties agree, the court can decide a case ex aequo et bono, i.e., without limiting itself to existing rules of international law. (GOB has said Guatemala has agreed not to have the case considered ex aequo et bono, but strictly on a legal basis.)
A case may be brought to a conclusion at any stage of the proceedings by a settlement between the parties or by the parties deciding to discontinue. In the latter case, an applicant state (in this case Guatemala) may at any time inform the court that it is not going on with the proceedings, or the two parties may declare that they have agreed to withdraw the case. The court then removes the case from its list.
The decision-makers at the ICJ
There are 15 judges who participate in the ICJ process, and decisions are by simple majority vote, meaning that at least 8 of those judges need to be on the same side for a decision to pass.
Judges are elected for 9-year terms by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the UN Security Council.
Judges are allocated as follows: Africa – 3, Latin America and the Caribbean – 2, Asia – 3, Western Europe and other States – 5, and Eastern Europe – 2.
Members elect the president and the vice-president from among themselves to serve every three years by secret ballot.
On February 6, 2006, the court elected Rosalyn Higgins of the U.K. to be president, and Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh of Jordan to be vice-president.
The Government of Belize reports that Higgins has retired early, and a new president will have to be elected to serve the remainder of her term.
The remaining 13 judges were from Madagascar, China, Sierra Leone, Venezuela, United States, Japan, Germany, Slovakia, France, New Zealand, Mexico, Morocco, and Russia. (See update below)
According to ICJ stats, “Each member of the court receives an annual salary of US$170,080, with a special supplementary allowance of US$15,000 for the president, and, on leaving the court, they receive annual pensions which, after a nine-year term of office, amount to US$80,000.”
Current News on the ICJ: 5 new judges elected
A press release issued by the ICJ today says that the UNGA has elected five members of the court in elections held Thursday. It says that the representatives from Jordan and France were re-elected to serve an additional 9-year term. New members were elected from Brazil, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Somalia. One-third of the membership is renewed every three years.
(For those with access to the Internet, you can get official information on the court from its website: http://www.icj-cij.org)