ICJ ruling grants limited third-party role, citing legal interest in sovereignty claims.

On Thursday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) unanimously authorized Guatemala to participate as a third party in the case between Belize and Honduras over sovereignty of the Sapodilla Cayes, a small archipelago in the southern Caribbean Sea.

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The Hague-based court, presided over by Japanese Judge Iwasawa Yuji, rejected Honduras’ arguments that Guatemala should be excluded from the proceedings on the grounds that its request constituted an “abuse of the intervention mechanism.”

The Sapodilla Cayes are a group of small islands located about 20 nautical miles from the coasts of the three countries. Belize and Honduras both claim them in this dispute. Guatemala, for its part, also claims the islands in a separate case it has had pending before the same court against Belize since 2019.

It was precisely this overlap that led Guatemala in 2023 to request permission to join the proceedings between Belize and Honduras, arguing that any ruling by the court on sovereignty over the islands could affect its own rights in the parallel case.

The ICJ concluded that Guatemala met the requirements set out in its statute for authorizing such an intervention, including a “legal interest” of a real and concrete nature based on its own claim of sovereignty over the same islands.

The court also found that this interest could be affected by the final judgment, since it will have to determine who holds sovereignty over a territory also claimed by Guatemala.

The ICJ further rejected Honduras’ argument that Article 59 of the statute — which provides that judgments are binding only on the parties to the case — would sufficiently protect Guatemala’s interests.

The court noted that in disputes over territorial sovereignty, that article does not always suffice to protect third states, because a decision on sovereignty necessarily affects all those claiming the same territory.

However, the authorization is not unlimited: the court specified that Guatemala may participate only as a third party, not as a full party to the dispute, and only on the issue of sovereignty over the Sapodilla Cayes and fishing rights in the surrounding waters.

This means Guatemala may present arguments and inform the court of its interests, but it may not seek recognition of its own rights against Belize or Honduras in this proceeding.

Belize brought Honduras before the ICJ in November 2022 after bilateral negotiations failed.

Honduras has claimed the islands since including them in its constitution in 1982, a move Belize rejects, citing more than 150 years of continuous administration by the United Kingdom — the colonial power from which it inherited the territory — and Honduras’ historical lack of objection.

Thursday’s decision is a procedural step and does not resolve who holds sovereignty over the islands, a debate that will take place in a later phase of the proceedings, for which no date has yet been set.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: ICJ – EFE

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