Guatemala Territorial Dispute

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Belize Guatemala Territorial Dispute Should we agree on taking that Guatemalan territorial dispute to the ICJ? The International court of Justice is commonly referred to as the world court, it is the primary judicial branch of the United Nations (Wikipedia) where the courts role is to settle legal dispute and to give advisory opinions on legal questions (International Court of Justice) The Belizean- Guatemalan territorial dispute is an unresolved bi-national territorial dispute between both countries, neighbours in Central America. The territory of Belize has been claimed in whole or in part by Guatemala since 1940 (Wikipedia). This nations is an independent country that is rich in resources, and this is why more than ever Guatemala is claiming …show more content…

Great Britain and Guatemala had been trying to agree on the dispute over the territory of Belize. Such treaties had been made by this two nations. In the Book, a history of Belize in 13 chapters, Assad shoman discusses many important features which are related to our history. Such as this important topic which was “Mediation by the Government of the U.S”, (qtd. History of Belize in 13th chapters). This topics talks about the issues that had occurred during the 1960s, at that particular time a mediator was assigned in order to fulfil the task of mediation. Bethuel Webster was to create a proposal in order to reach an agreement between both nations. It is said that the Britain and Guatemala had agreed that the objective of the mediation in progress would be the resolution of the dispute between both nations regarding the dispute over the territory of Belize (A History of Belize in 13th chapters). According to Shoman, the Belizean people were not satisfied in having only one mediator. The people wanted 3 governments or 3 citizens from other countries to mediate this subject, but in order not to block progress they had accepted one mediator. Webster had also discussed some ideas and did a first draft proposal which was going to be presented to the Government of Belize as soon as it was completed, but at the end the Webster proposal was neglected and the mediation failed. Perhaps the most shocking lesson for many Belizeans was that the British government could not be trusted to safe guard Belizean interest in the face of Guatemalan territorial claim (Shoman, PG#, 1994). Webster Proposals failed because the only party disposed to accept it was one that in circumstances least mattered, the United Kingdom. Good thing that the Belizeans took immediate actions, because if the Belizeans hadn’t realize it, then I think that Belize would had been part of Guatemala since

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