Press release #1 (on Costa Rica’s claim for compensation from Nicaragua)
The Government of Reconciliation and National Unity is pleased to announce that the International Court of Justice in The Hague has rejected 95% of Costa Rica’s claim for compensation from Nicaragua for certain activities that the Court previously found that Nicaragua had carried out in Costa Rican territory near the mouth of the San Juan de Nicaragua River. The Court’s Judgment was issued today, at 10:00 a.m. in The Hague (3:00 a.m. in Managua).
Costa Rica presented the Court with an extremely inflated claim for supposed environmental harm and repair costs incurred when Nicaragua cleared of debris small canos connecting the river to Harbor Head Lagoon in order to facilitate navigation, in 2010 and 2013. In a Judgment issued in December 2015, the Court ruled that Harbor Head Lagoon belonged to Nicaragua, and that Nicaragua had the sovereign right to dredge the river for navigation purposes, but that the canos connecting the river and the Lagoon passed through Costa Rican territory.
Costa Rica then claimed compensation from Nicaragua of US$ 7.2 million. Nicaragua strongly objected, and calculated that the harm caused by its activities did not exceed US$ 200,000. Nevertheless, in an exercise of good neighborliness, the President of Nicaragua publicly offered to reach an amicable settlement. But Costa Rica did not respond. The amount of compensation was thus left for the Court to decide.
In a very careful and serious opinion, the Court analyzed all elements of Costa Rica’s US$ 7.2 million claim, and rejected the vast majority of them, awarding Costa Rica only US$ 358,000 (approximately 5% of the amount Costa Rica claimed) plus interest of US$ 20,000. The Judgment, which was adopted by a vote of 15-1 (with only Costa Rica’s judge ad hoc dissenting), represented a major defeat for Costa Rica and its pretensions, and a vindication of Nicaragua’s position.
Managua, 2 de Febrero, 2018
Gobierno de Reconciliación
y Unidad Nacional
Press release # 2 (on case brought in 2014 to determine the maritime boundaries between Costa Rica and Nicaragua)
The Government of Reconciliation and National Unity is pleased to announce that, for the second time in the same day, the International Court of Justice has issued a Judgment that is very favorable to Nicaragua in a case brought against it by Costa Rica.
The case was brought in 2014 to determine the maritime boundaries between Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea and in the Pacific Ocean, which were long the subject of disagreement between the two States. The principal area of dispute was in the Caribbean Sea, where approximately 27,000 square kilometers of sea and seabed, and the natural resources located there, were claimed by both States. In the Judgment issued today, the Court fixed a boundary that awarded the vast majority of the area – approximately 20,000 square kilometers – to Nicaragua.
In so doing, the Court affirmed the significance of Nicaragua’s Corn Islands in generating maritime entitlements for Nicaragua, overruling Costa Rica’s objection that the Corn Islands should be ignored as a factor in establishing the boundary. The Court also rejected Costa Rica’s argument for an adjustment of the boundary in its favor due to an alleged cutoff of its maritime space.
The disputed area in the Pacific Ocean was smaller. The Court agreed with Nicaragua that the equidistance line favored by Costa Rica was unfair to Nicaragua because it gave undue weight to minor and irregular features on Costa Rica’s coast, especially the Santa Elena Peninsula. As a consequence, it adjusted the boundary in Nicaragua’s favor, awarding the disputed area to Nicaragua.
Both decisions, on the boundary in the Caribbean Sea and in the Pacific Ocean, were unanimous. All 16 judges voted in favor, including the judge ad hoc appointed by Costa Rica. There were none opposed.
Today’s Judgment, coupled with Nicaragua’s historic success in its maritime delimitation case against Colombia in 2012, leave Nicaragua with abundant maritime areas and continental shelves off both of its coasts, and exclusive entitlement to all natural resources that are present there.
In addition to settling the maritime boundaries between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, the Court today also resolved a small land dispute raised by Costa Rica in 2016, which was then joined to the main case. Specifically, the Court ruled that a 1.5 km stretch of uninhabitable Caribbean coast, on the right (Costa Rican) bank of the San Juan de Nicaragua River adjacent to its mouth, belongs to Costa Rica. The area forms part of the wetlands known as Isla Portillo, which the Court determined to belong to Costa Rica in December 2015. The Judgment today confirms that ruling. At the same time, it confirms that Nicaragua alone is sovereign over the San Juan de Nicaragua River, all the way to its mouth at the Caribbean Sea, as well as Harbor Head Lagoon and the 1 km stretch of coast that separates the Lagoon from the Sea.
The Judgment was read in a public session in The Hague at 3:00 p.m. Hague time (8:00 a.m. in Managua). Earlier in the day, the Court issued its Judgment in another case involving Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In the first case, with was the subject of an earlier announcement by the Government, the Court rejected Costa Rica’s claim for US$ 7.2 million in compensation for activities carried out by Nicaragua in Isla Portillos between 2010 and 2014, when title to the territory was still in dispute. Instead, the Court fixed the compensation at approximately US$ 350,000 – only 5% of the amount claimed by Costa Rica. Nicaragua has said it will fully and promptly comply with the Court’s Judgment.
Managua, 2 de Febrero, 2018
Gobierno de Reconciliación
y Unidad Nacional