Proceedings of the Workshop - United Nations Office for Outer ...

146 THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN PRIVATIZATIONAND COMMERCIAL USE OF OUTER SPACE• If there is a residual IGO, its primary functionwould be to mediate and, if necessary, seekenforcement of the LCOPrivatization: Summary• INTELSAT remains committed to its uniquemandate to provide lifeline connections to itscustomers• New INTELSAT will honor existing contractprices and terms and conditions• Privatization will strengthen INTELSAT’sability to compete and attract new funding• INTELSAT will be able to target key growthmarketsCommentary PaperMr. P. HulsrojEUMETSATShould the UN be privatised? No, not possible yousay instinctively, but is it instinctively in the samefashion as we said: no, not possible, when privatisationof parts of INMARSAT was first mooted?So, to answer the question let us not rely oninstincts, but on analysis.If we look at the UN's peace-fostering andhumanitarian role, it is clear that many areas are, in fact,already partly privatised. Private aid organisationsabound and Jimmy Carter went to Haiti to broker peacemore in his personal capacity, than as a representative ofthe United States. In an age where "alternative disputeresolution" mechanisms are making rapid advances, theycan be expected also to be increasingly involved inpeace-fostering. And yet the UN cannot be privatised,because at its core it is an institutional framework tochannel inter-state political will. It has an inalienablefunction, if not as world government, then as a tool ofworld governments. The functions of the SecurityCouncil or the General Assembly cannot be privatised.But we are not here to discuss privatisation of theUN, but to discuss privatisation and commercialisationin relation to the intergovernmental space organisations.And yet there is something to be learned from the UNexample, and that is the crucial distinction betweencommercial and public service functions.This is, indeed, a crucial distinction when we try toanalytically grasp the present trend of privatisation ofinternational space organisations. INMARSAT,INTELSAT and EUTELSAT are involved in markets;markets which are being de-regulated and where thevestiges of sovereign power are being swept away bythe current of the market's demand for a level playingfield for all.In essence the argument for privatising theseinternational organisations is that they are engaged inwhat has become a commercial market and that itwould be wrong and unfair if such internationalorganisations would enjoy tax- and funding advantagescompared to their regular commercial competitors. Acompelling logic, particularly when you keep in mindhow national telecommunication monopolies are alsobeing dismantled and privatised.Nevertheless, you will, no doubt, also hear fromMr. Sagar how INMARSAT has had to create specialmechanisms for dealing with its remaining publicservice function; a function which cannot be privatised.And that is the crux of the matter: there are, also inspace, functions that cannot be privatised; which remainof a public sector nature.Intergovernmental organisations were created totake care of public service functions. Where a marketdevelops the intergovernmental organisations disappear,but where this is not the case intergovernmentalorganisations remain. Just like branches of governmentnormally disappear when no longer needed, butgovernment itself subsists.