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No. 89/17
24 August 1989
Guinea-Bissaubrinpsa caseanainstSeneval
The following informatii on communicatedto the Pressby the
Registryof the International Couo rtJustice:
On 23 August1989the Governrnen tf theRepublicof Guinea-Bissau
filedin the Registry of the International Couo rftJusticean
Application institutingproceedings agains the Republicof Senegal.
In itsApplication theGovernment of the Republicof Guinea-Bissau
refers,in orderto establish thebasisof the Court'sjurisdiction, to
the Declarations madb ey thetwo StatesunderArticle36, paragraph2, of
the Statuteof the Court.
It explainsthat, notwithstanding t nhegotiationscarriedon from
1977 onwards, the two States wereunableto reachagreement regardin tghe
settlement of a disputeconcerning the maritid meelimitationto be
effectedbetweenthem andfor thatreason jointly consented, by an
Arbitration Agreement date1d2 March 1985, to subrnithatdisputeto an
Arbitration Tribunalcornposeodf threemembers.
The Governmentof Guinea-Bissau indicates that, accort dinthe
termsof Article2 of thatAgreement, theTribunalwas askedto ruleon
the following two-foldquestion:
"1. Does the agreement concluded ban exchangeof letters
[between Franceand Portugal] on 26April1960,and which
relatesto the maritime frontieh r,ve the forceof law inthe
relations betweetnhe Republic of Guinea-Bissauand the
Republicof Senegal?
2. In the eventof a negativeanswerto the first
question, what itshe course of the linedelimiting the
maritimeterritories appurtaini ngthe Republic of
Guinea-Bissauand theRepublicof Senegalrespectively?"
It addsthat it was specified, in Article 9of theAgreement, that
theTribunal would informthe two Governments of its decisionregarding
the questionsset forthin Article2, and that thatdecisionshould
include the drawin on a map of the frontierline - the Application
ernphasize shatthe Agreement uses theword "liner'in the singular. Accordingto theGovernment of Guinea-Bissau, th Tribunalon
31 July 1989 communicatedto the Partiesa "textthatwas supposed to
serveas an award".
While reservintghe right to add to andamendits submissiond suring
the subsequent proceedings if needab nd,to submitto the Court a
request for the indicationof interimmeasures ifthey should prove
necessary, theGovernment of the Republicof Guinea-Bissaua,t the end of
itsApplication, askt she Courtto adjudgeand declare:
"- that [the]so-calleddecision[oftheTribunal]is
inexistentin view of the factthatone of the two
Arbitrators who gav the appearanceof a majorityin favour
of the textof the 'Award'has,by a Declaration appendedto
it, expressed vaiew in contradiction wit the one
apparentlyadoptedby thevote;
- subsidiarily,thatthatso-called decisionis nul1 and void,
as the Tribunaldid not givea completeanswerto the
two-foldquestionraisedby the Agreement an so didnot
arrive ata single delimitation line du reycordedon a map,
and as it has notgiven the reasons fotrhe restrictions
thusunreasonably imposedupon its jurisdiction;
- that theGovernment of Senegalis not justifiedin seeking
to require the Governmeont Guinea-Bissauto apply the
Awardof 31 July 1989".
Guinea-Bissau brings a case against Senegal