THE HAGUE (Halbeeg News) – The International Court of Justice has sided with Somalia in its dispute with neighboring Kenya over a maritime, rejecting Kenya’s boundary delimitation method and virtually all claims it presented at the UN court.
In a lengthy judgment made at The Hague on Tuesday, the Court ruled that the equidistant rule which Somalia had proposed was the legally acceptable method in settling the continental shelf boundaries contrary to Kenya’s parallel to the latitude option.
The panel of 14 judges sitting in The Hague said that Kenya had not proved that Somalia had previously agreed to its claimed border.
The ICJ ruled there was “no agreed maritime boundary” and drew a new border close to the one claimed by Somalia, although Kenya kept a part of the 100,000 square-kilometre (38,000-square-mile) area.
“The court unanimously finds that there is no agreed maritime boundary between the Federal Government of Somalia and the Republic of Kenya that follows that parallel of latitude.”
“Kenya has not consistently maintained its claim that the maritime border with Somalia is defined by the line of latitude between the two side,” said the presiding judge at ICJ, Joan E. Donoghue.
The Hague-based court asked both parties to amicably solve the current dispute.
Rulings by the ICJ, which was set up after World War II to resolve disputes between UN member states, are binding and cannot be appealed.
The court has no overt means of enforcing judgments but can refer violations to the United Nations.
The court’s decision, which is final, could have far-reaching consequences for the future of relations between two key countries in one of the world’s most troubled regions
In 2009, the two countries had agreed in a memorandum of understanding, backed by the UN, to settle the boundary dispute through negotiation. But five years later, Somalia said the talks had failed and it went to the ICJ instead.
Last Friday, Kenya said withdrew its membership from the ICJ, and declared it would not recognise Tuesday’s judgement.
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