The dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia in the Southwestern Caribbean will be discussed.
The long-standing dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia in the Southwestern (SW) Caribbean passed another milestone in September 2021 with the hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the “Alleged Violations” case. The dispute centres on the San Andrés archipelago, a small group of Colombian islands, cays and rocks, situated about 100 nautical miles off the Nicaraguan coast but over 400M from the Colombian mainland. With islands entitled to 200M maritime zones these small features controlled vast swathes of the SW Caribbean.
The dispute was brought to the ICJ in 2000 and after preliminary proceedings the boundary judgment was eventually handed down in 2012. This drastically reduced the area allocated to Colombia, awarding large areas to Nicaragua that Colombia had previously controlled.
Colombia reacted with dismay and fury to the judgment denouncing the Court’s jurisdiction and maintaining (allegedly) its naval patrols in the area protecting its fishing rights, as well as proclaiming an extensive “integral contiguous zone”.
Nicaragua brought a third case against Colombia, “Alleged Violations”, citing many examples of Colombian activity in Nicaragua’s EEZ. Colombia responded with counter-claims against Nicaragua concerning the legality of baselines and infringements of traditional fishing rights.
The judgment is expected in about six months.
About the speaker:
Dr Robin Cleverly now works as a consultant supplying expert technical advice in the field of maritime boundary delimitation, particularly dispute resolution, principally to governments and law firms. This follows on from 25 years as a geologist in the oil industry, and 15 years working in the specialised field of maritime boundaries, ultimately as Head of the Law of the Sea Group at the UK Hydrographic Office.
He has worked extensively on international maritime boundary court cases at the ICJ, ITLOS and Annex VII tribunals and has been a member of the legal teams for all the recent maritime boundary cases. He provides technical advice and analysis, and maps and illustrations for written and oral pleadings.
He is a co-author with Stephen Fietta of “A Practitioner’s Guide to Maritime Boundary Delimitation” published in March 2016 by Oxford University Press.