INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Peace Palace, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague, Netherlands
Tel.: +31 (0)70 302 2323 Fax: +31 (0)70 364 9928
Website: www.icj-cij.org
Press Release
Unofficial
No. 2013/21
17 September 2013
Nicaragua institutes proceedings against Colombia asking the Court to “definitively
determine the question of the delimitation of the continental shelf between
Nicaragua and Colombia in the area beyond 200 nautical miles
from the Nicaraguan coast”
THE HAGUE, 17 September 2013. Nicaragua yesterday instituted proceedings against
Colombia with regard to a “dispute [which] concerns the delimitation of the boundaries between,
on the one hand, the continental shelf of Nicaragua beyond the 200-nautical-mile limit from the
baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea of Nicaragua is measured, and on the other
hand, the continental shelf of Colombia”.
In its Application, Nicaragua requests the Court to determine “[t]he precise course of the
maritime boundary between Nicaragua and Colombia in the areas of the continental shelf which
appertain to each of them beyond the boundaries determined by the Court in its Judgment of
19 November 2012” in the case concerning the Territorial and Maritime Dispute (Nicaragua v.
Colombia). The Applicant also requests the Court to indicate “[t]he principles and rules of
international law that determine the rights and duties of the two States in relation to the area of
overlapping continental shelf claims and the use of its resources, pending the delimitation of the
maritime boundary between them beyond 200 nautical miles from Nicaragua’s coast”.
Nicaragua recalls that “[t]he single maritime boundary between the continental shelf and the
exclusive economic zones of Nicaragua and of Colombia within the 200-nautical-mile limit from
the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea of Nicaragua is measured was defined by
the Court in paragraph 251 of its Judgment of 19 November 2012”.
The Applicant further recalls that “[i]n that case [it] had sought a declaration from the Court
describing the course of the boundary of its continental shelf throughout the area of the overlap
between its continental shelf entitlement and that of Colombia” but that “the Court considered that
Nicaragua had not then established that it has a continental margin that extends beyond
200 nautical miles from the baselines from which its territorial sea is measured, and that it was
therefore not then in a position to delimit the continental shelf as requested by Nicaragua”.
Nicaragua contends that its “final information” submitted to the Commission on the Limits
of the Continental Shelf on 24 June 2013 “demonstrates that Nicaragua’s continental margin
extends more than 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial
sea of Nicaragua is measured, and both (i) traverses an area that lies more than 200 nautical miles
from Colombia and also (ii) partly overlaps with an area that lies within 200 nautical miles of
Colombia’s coast”. - 2 -
The Applicant also maintains that the two States “have not agreed upon a maritime boundary
between them in the area beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast of Nicaragua” and that
“Colombia has objected to continental shelf claims [from other States] in that area”.
As the basis for the jurisdiction of the Court, Nicaragua invokes Article XXXI of the
American Treaty on Pacific Settlement (officially known as the “Pact of Bogotá”), signed on
30 April 1948, to which “[b]oth Nicaragua and Colombia are parties”. Nicaragua asserts that it was
“constrained . . . into taking action upon this matter rather sooner than later in the form of the
present application” as, “on 27 November 2012, Colombia gave notice that it denounced as of that
date the Pact of Bogotá”, and as, “in accordance with Article LVI of the Pact, that denunciation
will take effect after one year, so that the Pact remains in force for Colombia until
27 November 2013”.
In addition, Nicaragua also submits that “the subject-matter of the . . . Application remains
within the jurisdiction of the Court established in the case concerning the Territorial and Maritime
Dispute (Nicaragua v. Colombia), . . . in as much as the Court did not in its Judgment dated
19 November 2012 definitively determine the question of the delimitation of the continental shelf
between Nicaragua and Colombia in the area beyond 200 nautical miles from the Nicaraguan coast,
which question was and remains before the Court in that case”.
Nicaragua further indicates that it “reserves the right to amend and/or supplement this
Application and its legal basis”.
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The full text of Nicaragua’s Application of 16 September 2013 will shortly be available on
the Court’s website.
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Tribunal for Lebanon (STL, an independent judicial body composed of Lebanese and international - 3 -
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Information Department:
Mr. Andrey Poskakukhin, First Secretary of the Court, Head of Department (+31 (0)70 302 2336)
Mr. Boris Heim, Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2337)
Ms Joanne Moore, Associate Information Officer (+31 (0)70 302 2394)
Ms Genoveva Madurga, Administrative Assistant (+31 (0)70 302 2396)
Nicaragua institutes proceedings against Colombia asking the Court to “definitively determine the question of the delimitation of the continental shelf between Nicaragua and Colombia in the area beyond 200 nautical miles from the Nicaraguan coast”