Jurisdiction Ruling in
Nicaragua-Colombia Row
Dec 13
The U.N.'s International
Court of Justice (ICJ)
will rule on December 13
whether it has
jurisdiction to decide a
border dispute between
Nicaragua and Colombia
over a tiny group of
Caribbean islands.
Nicaragua asked the ICJ,
the United Nations'
highest court based in
The Hague, to grant it
sovereignty over the
archipelago and end the
row that Colombia says
started nearly 200 years
ago and was settled
nearly 80 years ago.
"The judgment will deal
solely with the
preliminary objections
raised by Colombia
regarding the
jurisdiction of the
court," the ICJ said in
a statement late on
Friday.
The two nations,
separated by Panama and
Costa Rica, lay claim to
the isolated Caribbean
Islands San Andres and
Providencia off
Nicaragua's Atlantic
Coast, as well as
several keys and some
50,000 sq km of fishing
waters.
Colombia told the court
in June border disputes
were inevitable after
the fall of the Spanish
Empire in the Americas
and the one in question
was "definitively
settled" in 1928, when
Nicaragua and Colombia
signed a treaty granting
Colombia sovereignty
over the islands.
But Nicaragua's
Sandinista government in
the 1980s annulled the
accord and argued it was
signed while Nicaragua
was under U.S. military
occupation.
Many Nicaraguans
consider the treaty a
U.S. payoff to Colombia
for arranging the
independence of Panama
from Colombia in order
to build the Panama
Canal.
The islands and keys in
question also fall
within the maritime
borders of Costa Rica,
Honduras and Jamaica.
The ICJ, or World Court,
opened the hearing in
this case in March and
finished it in June. The
court hears disputes
between states and its
decisions are founded in
international law.
Its final rulings are
binding and without
appeal. |
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