ROOM
95
Opinion
COPUOS is still the
largest international
forum dealing with space
governance.
I
nternational mechanisms and institutions
governing space activities have not been
evolving and adjusting as quickly as the
actors and their activities conducted in the
global space sector. Although the current legal
regime and related system of space governance
has so far tackled issues emerging as a result of
new developments sufficiently well, this may
become more and more difficult in coming years.
Global space governance finds itself at a
crossroads with multiple different ways to
proceed. The international space community
needs to adjust mechanisms and policies to
more adequately reflect the rise of private space
activities, ambitious visions in space exploration,
current trends in space security or new types and
growing numbers of actors dealing with space,
both in national policies and in international arena.
Fortunately, forthcoming years are providing
the international space community with symbolic
anniversaries that raise both public and expert
awareness of issues related to the governance of
space activities and thus could create momentum
for new or improved incentives for more suited
ways of governing space activities.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Outer
Space Treaty, the primary document of international
space law. The Treaty itself contains mainly
general provisions governing fundamental rights,
responsibilities and obligations that countries have
when they conduct space activities. Even though it
is not an exhaustive legal text, authors of the Treaty
created solid foundations for a more comprehensive
mechanism establishing fair balance between
freedoms and obligations, interests of stronger and
weaker actors, and ideals on the one hand versus
political realities on the other.
Next year will see the 50th anniversary of the
first global Conference on the Exploration and
Peaceful Uses of Outer Space - UNISPACE - held
in Vienna, Austria, in 1968. Since then two other
UNISPACE conferences have taken place in
Vienna - in 1982 and 1999 - and the United Nation’s
Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space
(UN COPUOS) is now organising the fourth such
conference, UNISPACE+50.
Previous UNISPACE conferences have had a
significant impact on subsequent periods of time.
The post-millennial agenda of UN COPUOS has
been largely shaped by the results of UNISPACE
III elaborated in the Vienna Declaration on
Space and Human Development. As this new
opportunity approaches, the international space
community should take into account these results
and build upon this knowledge.
Forthcoming conferences will serve as a fruitful
forum with potential to create new or expand
existing regulatory mechanisms, transparency and
confidence building measures, policy incentives, or
other relevant multilateral initiatives.
UNISPACE+50 will be held in mid-2018. The
process and work plan leading to the conference
includes several other events, including some high-
level forums, with the most recent of them taking
place in late November 2016. The Dubai Declaration,
which emerged as a result of this multi-day
event, outlined optimistic and hopeful visions and
ambitions for upcoming months and years.
How should global governance of space activities
deal with new trends and developments in
national security space or space weaponisation?
Tomas Hrozensky
