SWF Outreach to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

Friday, June 17, 2016

Dr. Michael Simpson, SWF’s Executive Director, participated in the fifty-ninth session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) from June 8-17 at the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. On behalf of SWF, Dr. Simpson delivered a statement to COPUOS where he summarized SWF’s activities over the past calendar year, and SWF’s upcoming work in cooperation with the UN system. His statement is available here.

This year at COPUOS, wide agreement was reached on a preliminary set of 12 guidelines supporting the long term sustainability of space activities. These guidelines, and the sixteen or so still under discussion, fall into several broad categories: policy and regulatory frameworks; space operations; international cooperation and capacity-building; and scientific and technical research and development. Work will continue to finalize the second set of guidelines and a preambular text, and the full compendium are expected to be then adopted by the COPUOS and subsequently referred to the UN General Assembly in 2018 to coincide with UNISPACE+50.

The final 2017 COPUOS report is now online in all six official UN languages. 

For the remainder of 2016, SWF outreach to OOSA organized events includes co-sponsoring the upcoming 10th Space Law Workshop, entitled “Contribution of Space Law and Policy to Governance and Space Security in the 21st Century." Chris Johnson will present on the topic of "New Space Actors" in Panel 1 - International Space Law and Policy Development, on Day 1 of the workshop, on Monday, September 5.  

SWF anticipates many more opportunities to cooperate with the UN system. SWF will be present this September in Mexico at the UN IAF Workshop series, and will be present in New York for the meeting of the UN General Assembly Fourth committee as it reviews the space policy elements of its agenda.

SWF is also sponsoring and participating at the OOSA-organized 2016 High Level Forum (HLF) in Dubai, UAE, part of a series of meetings leading up to UNISPACE+50 in 2018. 

SWF seeks to advance the committee’s work and collaborate with Member States.

Speaker recordings may be found here.