Statement by Ministry of International Trade and Foreign Affairs
On October 3 that ‘settlement’ was 125 years old and Guyana still accepts and honours the Arbitral Award as stipulated by the Treaty
A Full, Perfect and Final Settlement – or UNA SOLUCION COMPLETA, PERFECTA Y DEFINITIVA – is the marque of Guyana’s border with Venezuela: FULL – PERFECT – FINAL. They are words of wholeness, of precision, of eternity. They are words of portrayal that have branded Guyana’s western boundary with Venezuela from Punta Playa to the Summit of Mount Roraima.
When in 1897, Venezuela and Great Britain concluded the Treaty of Washington by which they agreed to submit the dispute regarding the location of their land boundary to binding arbitration before a tribunal of eminent jurists, including the heads of the judiciary of the United States and Great Britain, they agreed in that Treaty to accept the Tribunal’s Award as ‘a full, perfect and final settlement’ of the boundary issue. That ‘settlement’ is exactly 125 years old on October 3, and Guyana still accepts and honours the Arbitral Award as stipulated by the Treaty.
On 3 October 1899, the Arbitral Tribunal delivered its unanimous Award, which determined the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana (“the 1899 Award”). The 1899 Award was the culmination of arbitral proceedings during which the respective territorial claims of Great Britain and Venezuela were addressed at great length and in detail by distinguished legal counsel representing the two States, including through many thousands of pages of written submissions and more than 200 hours of oral hearings before the Arbitral Tribunal.
Venezuela, for its part treated the Award as a final settlement of the boundary for more than six decades after it was delivered. It consistently recognized, affirmed and relied upon the 1899 Award as “a full, perfect, and final” determination of the boundary with British Guiana. Between 1900 and 1905, together with the British, Venezuela participated in a joint demarcation of the boundary, in strict adherence to the letter of the 1899 Award, and emphatically refused to countenance even minor technical modifications of the boundary line described in the Award. In 1905, they signed the Agreement fixing the boundary in strict conformity with the 1899 Award.
Venezuela proceeded to formally ratify the demarcated boundary in its domestic law and thereafter published official maps, which depicted the boundary following the line described in the 1899 Award.
However, in 1962 as the independence of British Guiana dawned, Venezuela drew up barricades to its full freedom from Great Britain in the UN’s Special Committee on Decolonization. Venezuela recognized that it would become neighbour to a nascent State and by virtue of its expansionist ambition, abandoned the rule of law and good faith, and laid claims to Guyana’s Essequibo territory.
As Guyana commemorates the anniversary of the Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899, we do so with respect for the rule of international law and our pacta sunt servanda obligation.
Based on the determination of the United Nations Secretary-General, pursuant to the 1966 Geneva Agreement, Guyana instituted proceedings by Application to the International Court of Justice on 29 March 2018 asking the Court to resolve the controversy that has arisen as a result of Venezuela’s unfounded contention that the 1899 Arbitral Award Regarding the Boundary between the Colony of British Guiana and the United States of Venezuela is “null and void”.
In Judgments issued in 2020 and 2023, the International Court of Justice twice affirmed its jurisdiction over the case, and its determination to resolve the controversy between Guyana and Venezuela in conformity with international law.
The Government of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana has never been more convinced that the Arbitral Award of 1899 is valid, and that the rule of international law and the processes of the International Court of Justice will provide a peaceful settlement of the matter. Today again we call for honour as we celebrate on this anniversary date that faithful Arbitral Award of Paris of 3rd October 1899, in continued respect for the sanctity of Treaties and the rule of law.
