The territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana — a colonial legacy

This paper examines the role of the United Kingdom’s decolonisation policy in the development of the territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana. Particular attention is paid to the legal aspects of the settlement and their possible consequences. Historical and legal sources are analysed, such as the 1899 arbitration award on the border between British Guiana and Venezuela, the 1966 Geneva Agreement, the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, the UN Charter, as well as Guyana’s ratification of the Geneva Agreement and the activities of the Venezuela-Guyana Joint Commission for the Settlement of the Dispute. The conclusions presented in this work contribute to a broader understanding of contemporary post-colonial conflicts, whilst emphasising the importance of close interaction between decolonisation policies and legal procedures for peaceful settlement. The author employed a comparative analysis to identify similarities and differences in the concepts and methods of resolving the dispute between the two countries. The historical-comparative method was employed to compare historical sources reflecting the formation of the conceptual foundations of the states’ policies regarding the conflict in question, alongside other applied interdisciplinary methods.