The Hague to Deliver New Judgment for Maritime Litigation Between Colombia and Nicaragua

The Colombian Foreign Ministry and Nicaraguan delegates must present on April 21 at the Peace Palace in The Hague, where they will hear the ruling of the international tribunal on alleged violations of sovereign rights and maritime spaces that began in 2013, between the two countries.

According to Caracol Radio, the International Court will give its verdict on Nicaragua's claims against Colombia for allegedly having “violated international law”, by failing to comply with the decision that was given on November 19, 2012 and following the Navy's operations in the Caribbean Sea and the decree of the Integral Contiguous Zone.

In addition, the international tribunal must also analyze Colombia's claim against the Central American nation, in which it claims that it violated the artisanal fishing rights of the inhabitants of the San Andrés Archipelago, especially against the Raizal community.

This decision, the radio station recalls, will not change what the Hague decided in 2012 on the maritime territories of the two countries on the San Andrés archipelago of Colombia, like all the keys.

In order to make a decision, the Court has listened to both sides. For Colombia, the vice-president and chancellor, Marta Lucía Ramírez, the governor of the department of San Andrés and Providencia, Everth Hawkins Sjogreen, the National Navy and the representative of the raizal community, Kent Francis James, have spoken directly because one of the activities on which they economically depend is fishing ancestral and this was affected by what was decided by the Court in 2012. For its part, the Central American country has delivered the evidence that would support its claim showing non-compliance with the norm and what was issued by the Court in 2012.

As El Tiempo mentioned, the decision will have wide repercussions on the next government, which will have to address the issue and decide the right strategy before this international court and against Nicaragua. Well, in the case of Colombia, the decision not only affects the issue of sovereignty but also a key economic income for the communities of the San Andrés Archipelago.

This news is important for the parties because it is a decision that interferes with the importance of sovereignty and maritime spaces in the Caribbean Sea. This is because, since 2013, the Daniel Ortega regime has accused the Colombian State of having violated this right, mentioned in the agreements signed in international treaties by both countries.

The anthropologist Maria Catalina García, a PhD candidate in Geography and International Development at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), analyzed the socio-legal implications of the case being carried out before The Hague, and which had a new chapter in recent weeks in hearings where Colombia attended the demands and complaints of Nicaragua on an alleged violation of the maritime boundary ruling.

According to García's research, released by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the daily life around the sea of the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Archipelago has changed during the conflict and has impacted both the livelihoods of the communities involved and their environment.

“The consequences left by more than two decades of the border conflict between Colombia and Nicaragua translate into changes in the spatial dynamics between the populations of the ethnic territory, impacts on the economic livelihood of the raizales due to the implications for artisanal fishing, as well as disadvantages in the implementation of concrete actions to preserve the marine environment of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve”, they indicated in addition to the study.

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