The International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected Nicaragua’s request to extend its continental shelf beyond its maritime border with Colombia.
Nicaragua asked the Court to grant it a continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its Caribbean coast, but Colombia defends that the shelf of the San Andrés archipelago “unquestionably joins the continental shelf off the coast of Nicaragua.” Colombian Caribbean”.
Judge Joan E. Donoghue read the decision which was reached by the highest judicial body of the United Nations, whose sentences are legally binding and final. “By thirteen votes against four, [la Corte] rejects the request presented by the Republic of Nicaragua for the Court to adjudicate and declare that the islands of San Andrés and Providencia have the right to a continental shelf up to a line formed by arcs of 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the width of the territorial sea of Nicaragua is measured”.
Background
The dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua over this maritime zone, rich in fishing and mineral resources, has gone on for decades. The archipelago is located some 800 kilometers from the northwest coast of Colombia and 240 kilometers from the Nicaraguan coast. In addition to the sovereignty of the islands and several cays, the dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua includes an area of 50,000 kilometers of fishing waters.
In 2012, due to an ICJ ruling, Colombia maintained sovereignty over the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, but lost almost 75,000 square kilometers of sea with which Nicaragua obtained some submarine oil and gas deposits, as well as fishing rights.
In November 2013, Nicaragua filed a complaint for alleged violations by Colombia of its sovereign rights and maritime spaces in the Caribbean Sea, which were in breach of sentence of 2012 in which the International Court of Justice marked the new maritime limits between the two countries.
In its complaint, Nicaragua asserted that the Colombian Navy was conducting operations in the Nicaraguan exclusive zone recently demarcated by The Hague, Arguing the right to undertake operations against drug trafficking and organized crime and to protect the residents of the San Andrés and Providencia archipelago, as well as to protect the biosphere reserve.
Colombia countersued twicearguing that Nicaragua was violating the artisanal fishing rights of the inhabitants of the San Andrés and Providencia archipelago to exploit their fishing grounds, and that it was unilaterally adjudicating maritime zones to the detriment of Colombia.
Finally, in April 2022, the body issued a ruling where ruled that Colombia had violated “the sovereign rights and jurisdiction” of Nicaragua in its exclusive economic zone.
