Colombia Dismisses The Hague Court

Colombia new sea limits

The Government of Colombia confirmed last Wednesday, November 28, their withdrawal of the Bogota Pact, and hence it will not recognize the jurisdiction and sentences given by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

Maria Angela Holguin, foreign minister of Colombia, ratified the resolution carried out by the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos of abandoning the treaty. This instrument was signed precisely in the Colombian capital, on April 30 of 1948, during the IX Pan American Conference.

Santos stated, “that the territorial and sea limitations be set by through treaties, as it has been the Colombian judicial tradition, and not by sentences. Never again will this happen to us again, like what happened with sentence given by ICJ.”

The ICJ sentence, given last November 19, was a total change in the map of the country, because it caused Colombia to loose around 75,000 km2 of sea territory, now in the hands of Nicaragua. This occurred due to a lawsuit presented to the High Court of The Hague, to redefine their border with Colombia in the Caribbean sea.