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STORY : ICJ / COLOMBIA – NICARAGUA
TRT: 1.40
SOURCE: ICJ
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 NOVEMBER 2012, INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE, THE HAGUE, THE NEATHERLANDS
1. Wide shot, Auditorium Room with ICJ judges sitting
2. Med shot, ICJ President Peter Tomka reading decision in English
3. Med shot, ICJ Registrar Philippe Couvreur
4. Various shots, judges
5. Close up, Colombia name plate
6. Med shot, Colombian delegtation
7. Close up, Nicaragua name plate
8. Med shot, Nicaraguan delegation
9. Med shot, judges
10. SOUNDBITE (French) Registrar Philippe Couvreur, ICJ :
“For these reasons, the Court unnanimously, finds that the Republic of Colombia has sovereignty over the islands at Alburquerque, Bajo Nuevo, East Southeast Cays, Quitasueño, Roncador, Serrana and Serranilla; By fourteen votes to one, finds admissible the Republic of Nicaragua’s claim contained in its final submission I requesting the Court to adjudge and declare that “the appropriate form of delimitation, within the geographical and legal framework constituted by the mainland coasts of Nicaragua and Colombia, is a continental shelf boundary dividing by equal parts the overlapping entitlements to a continental shelf of both Parties”.
11. Med shot, audience
12. Wide shot, colombian delegation
The principal judicial organ of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), today ruled that Colombia, and not Nicaragua, had sovereignty over seven disputed islands in the Caribbean Sea.
In its judgment, which is final and binding, the Court found that Roncador, Quitasueño, Serrana, Serranilla, Bajo Nuevo, Cayo Bolivar and Alburquerque belonged to Colombia.
The long-running territorial and maritime dispute between the two countries first brought before the ICJ in 2001, also concerned the maritime delimitation between them.
As part of today’s ruling, the Court – which is based in The Hague – proceeded to delimit the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zones of Nicaragua and Colombia in the area lying 200 nautical miles off the Nicaraguan coasts.
In a 2007 judgment, the ICJ had already held that it had no jurisdiction with regard to Nicaragua’s claim to sovereignty over the islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, because this question had been determined by a 1928 treaty by which Nicaragua recognized Colombian sovereignty over these islands.
Established in 1945 under the UN Charter, the ICJ – sometimes referred to as the World Court – settles legal disputes between States and gives advisory opinions on legal questions that have been referred to it by authorized UN organs or specialized agencies.
