United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space


The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was established in 1958 as an ad hoc committee. In 1959, it was formally established by United Nations resolution 1472.
The mission of COPUOS is "to review the scope of international cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space, to devise programmes in this field to be undertaken under United Nations auspices, to encourage continued research and the dissemination of information on outer space matters, and to study legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space."
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs is Secretariat to the Committee. All documents related to the Committee and its subcommittees, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee, can be found at the UNOOSA website.
The United Nations involvement in space related activities can be traced back to the beginning of the Space Race. After the first man-made object orbited the Earth in 1957, the UN has focused on ensuring outer space is used for peaceful purposes. The Launch of Sputnik marked the beginning of the Space Race as well as the beginning of satellite use for the advancement of science.
As the Cold War began, fear of Outer Space being used for military purposes spread through the international community. This led to the creation of multiple organizations with the intent of governing how outer space can be used in order to assure it does not become the next frontier for conflict.

History

In 1958, the United Nations established the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space which originally consisted of 18 members: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Sweden, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Arab Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America.
In 1959, the United Nations permanently established the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and grew to involve 24 countries The main focuses of COPUOS is to promote cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space, and share information regarding outer space and its exploration.
In 1962, the two COPUOS subcommittees: the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee met for the first time and continue to do so annually.

Treaties and agreements

COPUOS oversees the implementation of five UN treaties and agreements relating to activities in outer space:
COPUOS also keeps track of the following other international agreements relating to activities in outer space:
;General
;Institutions
Both the former USSR and the USA engaged in an "arms race" including weapons systems functional in low-orbit altitudes; US President Ronald Reagan termed it "star wars"; this raised serious concerns. Space-based nuclear weapons tests are explicitly banned, however, several nation-states with the capacity for satellite launch are not members of the NPT, and have had a poor record on disclosure of weapons, particularly of concern is tendency toward Nuclear Ambiguity, and how such policy may effect the current treaty.
In 2017, with the reports of "Sonic attacks" on US staff of diplomatic missions in Cuba, the ban on space-based weapons systems is again on the radar.

Near-Earth object deflection and disaster response

The Association of Space Explorers, working in conjunction with B612 Foundation members, helped obtain UN oversight of near-Earth object tracking and deflection missions through COPUOS along with its Action Team 14 expert group. Several members of B612 and ASE have worked with COPUOS since 2001 to establish international involvement for both impact disaster responses, and on deflection missions to prevent impact events. As explained by B612 Foundation Chair Emeritus Rusty Schweickart in 2013, "No government in the world today has explicitly assigned the responsibility for planetary protection to any of its agencies".
In October 2013, the UN committee approved several measures to deal with terrestrial asteroid impacts, including the creation of an International Asteroid Warning Network to act as a clearing house for shared information on dangerous asteroids and for any future terrestrial impact events that are identified. A UN Space Missions Planning Advisory Group will also coordinate joint studies of the technologies for deflection missions, and as well provide oversight of actual missions. This is due to deflection missions typically involving a progressive movement of an asteroid's predicted impact point across the surface of the Earth until the NEO has been deflected either ahead of, or behind the planet at the point their orbits intersect. Schweickart states that an initial framework of international cooperation at the UN is needed to guide the policy makers of its member nations on several important NEO-related aspects.
At about the same time of the UN's policy adoption in New York City, Schweickart and four other ASE member, including B612 head Ed Lu and strategic advisers Dumitru Prunariu and Tom Jones, participated at a public forum moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson not far from the UN's headquarters, urging the global community to adopt further important steps towards planetary defense against the threat of NEO impacts. Their recommendations included:
The first meetings of IAWN and SMPAG were held in 2014.

Member States

The Committee was first established by the General Assembly in its resolution 1348 of 13 December 1958 and was originally composed of 18 members. It has grown to include 92 members as of 2019, and is subsequently one of the largest committees of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The evolution of the composition of the Committee is as follows:
YearNumber of membersMembersNotes
1958
18
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil,, Czechoslovakia, France, India,, Italy, Japan, Mexico,, Sweden,, United Arab Republic,,
1959
24
, Austria,, Hungary, Lebanon,
1961
28
Chad,, Morocco, Sierra Leone
1973
37
Chile,,, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan,
1977
47
, Cameroon, Colombia,,, Netherlands, Niger, Philippines, Turkey, Yugoslavia
1980
53
China, Greece,,, Upper Volta, Uruguay, Vietnam
1994
61
Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Peru, Republic of Korea, Senegal, South Africa, Ukraine
2001
64
Saudi Arabia, Slovakia
2002
65
Algeria
2004
67
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Thailand
2007
69
, Switzerland
2010
70
Tunisia
2011
71
Azerbaijan
2012
74
Armenia, Costa Rica, Jordan
2013
76
Belarus, Ghana
2014
77
Luxembourg
2015
83
El Salvador, Israel, Oman, Qatar, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates
2016
84
New Zealand
2017
87
Bahrain, Denmark, Norway
2018
92
Cyprus, Ethiopia, Finland, Mauritius, Paraguay
2019
95
Dominican Republic, Rwanda, Singapore

Permanent observers

In addition to the Committee's Member States, a number of international organizations, including both intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, have observer status with COPUOS and its subcommittees. The following is a list of the Committee's observers, with the year they were granted that status:
YearMembers
1962
  • Committee on Space Research
1972
  • European Space Agency
    • 1976
  • International Astronautical Federation
    • 1985
  • International Organization of Space Communications
  • International Telecommunication Satellite Organization
    • 1986
  • International Mobile Satellite Organization
    • 1990
  • International Law Association
  • International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
    • 1993
  • Association of Space Explorers
    • 1995
  • International Academy of Astronautics
  • International Astronomical Union
    • 1996
  • The Planetary Society
    • 1997
  • International Space University
    • 2001
  • European Association for the International Space Year
  • Space Generation Advisory Council
  • National Space Society
    • 2002
  • Committee on Earth Observation Satellites
  • World Space Week Association
    • 2003
  • Centre Regional de teledetection des Etats de l'Afrique duNord
  • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
    • 2005
  • European Space Policy Institute
    • 2007
  • African Organization of Cartography and Remote Sensing
    • 2008
  • European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere
  • European Telecommunications Satellite Organization
  • International Institute of Space Law
  • Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water
  • Secure World Foundation
    • 2009
  • The Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization
    • 2010
  • International Association for the Advencement of Space Safety
    • 2011
  • Association of Remote Sensing Centres in the Arab World
    • 2012
  • Ibero-American Institute of Aeronautic and Space Law and Commercial Aviation
  • Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics
    • 2013
  • Inter Islamic Network on Space Sciences and Technology
    • 2014
  • African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment
    • 2016
  • International Air Transport Association
    • 2017
  • European Science Foundation
  • University Space Engineering Consortium-Global
    • 2018
  • CANEUS-International
  • European Union
  • For All Moonkind
  • International Organization of Standardization

    • Bureau

    The following is the Bureau of the Committee for its 61st Session, which ran from 20-29 June 2018.
    NameCountryPosition
    Rosa María del Refugio Ramírez de Arellano y HaroMexicoChair
    Thomas DjamaluddinIndonesiaFirst Vice-Chair
    Keren Shahar Ben-AmiIsraelSecond Vice-Chair and Rapporteur
    Pontsho MarupingSouth AfricaChair of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee
    Andrzej MiszalPolandChair of the Legal Subcommittee