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Accommodation of Competing
Interests: A Latin American
Perspective
214
Ciro Arévalo-Yepes
As a pre-condition for its harmonious maturation, to which the ICoCfor
Outer Space Activities initiative is contributing, International Space Law
requires that the rights and duties for space activities should be framed
around critical legal and political values. Without a robust reference structure,
the space regime could become an antagonistic arena of conflict with
negative impacts on the space environment, with obvious consequences on
Earth.
Since UNISPACE III, where the main consensual principles launched by the
international community were reinforced, a number of initiatives were
discussed: Russia-China's draft “Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement
of Weapons in Outer Space and the Threat or Use of Force Against Outer
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Space Object” (PPWT); the Canadian Working Paper Presented to CD
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(June 05, 2009); the sustainability of space activities currently under
discussion in the UNCOPUOS; and the proposal “Towards a United Nations
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Space Policy”, launched by the author of this paper in his capacity as
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Chairman of COPUOS during its 53rd session in Vienna in June 2008. All
these initiatives have one common denominator, the need for greater
international cooperation to safeguard the continued use of outer space in a
peaceful manner for current and future generations and to promote
sustainable development on Earth through their application.
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