At the 38th plenary meeting of the 81st session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 72, H.E. Mrs. Janine Coye-Felson, Permanent Representative of Belize, delivered Belize’s statement on the annual report of the International Court of Justice. She thanked the President of the Court, Judge Iwasawa Yuji, for presenting the report.
Ambassador Coye-Felson described the Court as central to the peace architecture of the United Nations. In its first year the Court received a single case; on 31 July 2026 its General List stood at 24, and 88 States took part in its proceedings during the reporting period. “These numbers represent cases, not conflict.” Belize reaffirmed its steadfast commitment to the Court and commended its judges and Registry for safeguarding its integrity, independence and impartiality.
As a small State with modest means, Belize has chosen to defend principles essential to its own existence through the Court. Since 2004 it has taken part in five advisory proceedings: on the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2004), on Chagos (2018), on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2023–2024) and on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change, in which the Court’s Opinion of 23 July 2025 upheld each of the propositions Belize had advanced. Clarity in the law, the Ambassador noted, is essential to the sovereign equality envisaged in the Charter, allowing small States to negotiate on an equal footing.
Belize is also a party to two cases. Under the Special Agreement of 8 December 2008, confirmed by referendums in Guatemala and Belize in 2018 and 2019, the Court has been asked to decide Guatemala’s territorial, insular and maritime claim; oral hearings are fixed for February 2027. In a second case, instituted in November 2022, Belize asks the Court to declare that, as between Belize and Honduras, Belize is sovereign over the Sapodilla Cayes; by its Judgment of 19 March 2026 the Court permitted Guatemala to intervene as a non-party, and the case will be heard in March 2027. Through the Court, Belize expects finally to settle its differences with its neighbours, secure its borders and realize lasting peace and friendship among the three peoples.
On access to the Court, Belize called for simplified procedures and a substantial increase in the funds available to individual States through the Secretary-General’s Trust Fund, so that “the choice to go to the Court never turns on the size of a treasury.” It thanked France for its recent contribution, welcomed recent amendments to the Court’s Rules and Practice Directions, and supported the Court’s proposed 2027 budget. Noting that no university from the Caribbean Community has yet sponsored a participant in the Judicial Fellowship Programme, Belize encouraged the Court to reach further into the Global South and appealed to States to help the programme’s trust fund grow. Belize congratulated the five newly elected Members of the Court.