Importance of COPUOS - can it still be applied?

The United Nations has been involved in the space exploration activities from its earliest age, and the promotion of peaceful uses of space became the focal point, trying to prevent Space as yet another place where rivalry could take place. In 1958 with the Resolution 1348 (XIII) General Assembly (GA) established an ad hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which at the time consisted of 18 members. The purpose of the body was to mitigate possible legal disputes that might be able to arise when it comes to the exploration and use of space, to facilitate friendly relations among countries within the space exploration and to above all maintain control over activitites of the states. Less than a year later, with the Resolution 1472 (XIV) COPUOS was already established as a permanent body and the GA prolongued its mandate. Since then, this is the main and one of the biggest Committees within the UN targeting peaceful uses of outer space in promoting peace, security and development, promoting friendly relations and providing information regarding space activities and working as a forum for exchange of information and assisting with the studies. The number of member states has been growing increasingly since its establishment, but many governmental and non-governmental organizations have the observer status. COPUOS is a vital body whose assistance and initiative was together with countries, instrumental for the creation of five treaties and principles governing the peaceful use of outer space. Due to the rapid technological change and fast growing environmental change on Earth, the Committee provides a platform for discussion among international entities regarding the exploration and use of outer space and its objects.

COPUOS has two subcommittees: Legal Subcommittee and the Scientific and Techical Subcommittee, both being established in 1961. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) serves as a secretariat for COPUOS and is implementing Secretary-General's responsibilities under international space law and maintaining the UN's Register of Objects Launched into Outer Space. It provides information about who, when and what was launched into space, therefor no country can be accused of secret programming and forbidden agendas. It was established in 1985 with its resolution 1348 (XIII) to serve as an ad hoc secretariat to serve COPUOS, but was later in 1992 transformed into the Outer Space Affairs Division and relocated to Vienna, where it stayed until this day. UNOOSA primarily focuses on international workshops and training courses (prepares and distributes reports, studies and publications on various fields of space science and technology), but also conducts pilot projects on subjects like remote sensing, satellite navigation, satellite meteorology and other. It maintains an important 24-hour hotline as the UN's focal point for satellite imagery requests during natural disasters and manages the UN's Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Managements and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER).

As the UN from the beginning of space exploration and exploitation recognized the importance of dialogue among countries it organized three unique global Conferences on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space – UNISPACE Conferences – to reinforce the cooperation among states and international organizations. All of the three conferences were held in Vienna:

• UNISPACE I, Vienna 1968

This was the first conference out of three that focused its attention to the vast potential of the exploration of outer space and its benefits for all mankind. It called for the recognition of the use of space technology and science that could be also applied to the socio – economic areas on Earth. It implemented many trainings and workshops in diverse areas, such as telecommunications, weather forecasting and agricultural and forestry development, but also many others.

• UNISPACE II, Vienna 1982

The pivotal point of the second conference was how to maintain the use of outer space for peaceful cooperation and exploitation and prevent the arms race in space. It gave way to the third world countries and enabled them to equally cooperate and benefit from the strengthened UNOOSA programme. It led to the establishment of many regional centers and promote the activities in outer space among wider mass of population.

• UNISPACE III, Vienna 1999

The last conference focused on a broad variety of issues that concerned the exploration and exploitation of outer space, these were mainly protection of the space and its natural resources, to better use the improved space technology and science that could be applied to human security and development and to bring the third world countries in the same position as all others when it comes to the use of space and its benefits, as it is, after all, the heritage of all mankind.

The 2018 will mark the 50th anniversary of the first UN Conference, that’s why COPUOS decided to use this milestone as a UNISPACE 50+ event, to even further strengthen its mandate and to bring together once again major space faring nations and those emerging, and to create a domain of commonly shared human experience. It will address four major pillars: economy, society, accessibility and diplomacy. All of these must of course, be achieved through people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership.

The creation of COPUOS and its secretariat UNOOSA was a key milestone in the creation of space law and promotion of friendly use of common mankind heritage – space, less than 60 years ago. But with the development of technology and space science, things have obviously changed, so the question brings up itself, can these platforms for negotiation and cooperation keep up with the voracity of national interests, let alone the private companies and their endless sources of capital inflows? We can only hope and await the decisions that might bring countries closer together or drift them even further apart. Who knows what might happen, but the one thing is for sure, we cannot wait for the simulation to begin!

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