The HAGUE, CMC – Belize Wednesday delivered its rejoinder in the border dispute case with Guatemala to the Registrar of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ending the stage of written submissions.
The case was submitted to the ICJ due to the people’s decision in the 2019 referendum, after which a bipartisan commission was formed to guide the process.
In Belize, the referendum was held on May 8, 2019, with 55 percent of voters opting to send the matter to the ICJ, while in the referendum in Guatemala that took place on April 15, 2018, an overwhelming majority of 95 percent of the population agreed to send the dispute to the ICJ for a final decision.
“After four years of intense work by Belize’s international legal team and members of the Office of the Agent (Belize), Belizeans can be assured that an extreme case has been put forward in defense of Belize’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the government said in a statement Wednesday, adding the ICJ must now set a date for the oral hearings.
Belize became an independent country in 1981, and Guatemala recognized the independence at the beginning of the 1990s. But it never accepted the borders and continues to claim about 11,000 square km of Belize, nearly half of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
The country was claimed by Spain and settled by British buccaneers during the 17th century. Belize later became a British possession surrounded by countries that Spain had colonized.
In December 2008, both countries signed a deal that their citizens could vote to decide whether the territorial claim, which includes various islands, should be determined by the ICJ—date for the oral hearings.
and then 