The Venezuelan Minister of the People's Power for Foreign Affairs announced that on 24 January 2012, Venezuela denounced the Convention for the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the ICSID Convention). With this action, Venezuela complies with the formalities required to make official its withdrawal from ICSID.
The denunciation of the ICSID Convention was made in accordance with the provision of article 71 and will be effective from 24 July 2012. According to article 72, the denunciation will not affect rights and obligations of the State or nationals of the denouncing State arising from the consent given to ICSID jurisdiction before the notification of the denunciation of the Convention.
The Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) in force which are affected by having ICSID as the only option for the settlement of disputes between investors and the States parties to those BITs, are those with Germany, Chile and France, the last of them signed in 2001 and ratified in 2003.
The Venezuelan withdrawal from ICSID does not imply that the investors protected by BITs have lost their options to submit disputes to international arbitration, since these treaties provide, in general, additional options to ICSID.
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