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

150 THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN PRIVATIZATIONAND COMMERCIAL USE OF OUTER SPACEIn addition, it is anticipated that most of theregistration provisions for space property will be carriedin the future Space Property Protocol.Much work has been done on this future Protocol bythe Space Working Group set up by Peter Nesgos at theinvitation of UNIDROIT. For the time being, though, theprimary focus of our endeavours remains the earlyconclusion of the future Convention and the first of thefuture Protocols deemed ready by our GoverningCouncil for intergovernmental consideration, the futureAircraft Protocol. A second session of governmentalexperts will be held next month and a diplomaticConference is being tentatively envisaged for the end ofnext year. In view of the civil aviation dimension of thefuture Aircraft Protocol, these intergovernmentalnegotiations are being jointly sponsored by Unidroit andI.C.A.O.Another future Protocol meanwhile lies ready forintergovernmental consideration. This is the preliminarydraft Railway Rolling Stock Protocol, the preliminarywork on which by a Rail Working Group was completedearlier this month. Intergovernmental negotiations onthis future Protocol are to be jointly sponsored byUnidroit and the Intergovernmental Organisation forInternational Carriage by Rail (O.T.I.F.), the premierintergovernmental Organisation in this field.The significance of Unidroit's decision to movethese Protocols forward through the intergovernmentalstage in collaboration with these specialisedintergovernmental Organisations is to be seen in functionof the very important supervisory powers over theInternational Registry to be exercised under the futureConvention by an intergovernmental body. Amongstother functions, this intergovernmental supervisory bodywill have responsibility for designating the Registrar foreach category of equipment. The conferring of thesefunctions on an intergovernmental body was seen as animportant guarantee of the reputation of the internationalregistration system with prospective users. BothI.C.A.O. and O.T.I.F. have served notice of their interestin exercising such functions in relation to aircraftequipment and railway rolling stock respectively.One of the factors remaining to be resolved in thecontext of the preliminary draft Space PropertyProtocol is the identification of the intergovernmentalbody that might suitably be entrusted with theexercising of such responsibilities in respect of thefuture Space Property Registry and the related questionof the most appropriate intergovernmental Organisationor Organisations in collaboration with which Unidroitshould aim to move the preliminary draft SpaceProperty Protocol forward to intergovernmentalnegotiations.Both Unidroit and the Space Working Group tendin principle to believe that the most appropriateintergovernmental partner for Unidroit in this endeavourwould be the United Nations, in particular in view ofthe fact that both the Outer Space Treaty and theRegistration Convention were concluded under itsauspices. We have therefore been in regular touch withthe Office for Outer Space Aff airs on this issue over thepast 18 months and were particularly heartened to hearDr Jasentuliyana in Perugia in May alluding to thepossibility that the United Nations would in future bepaying more attention to the commercialisation of spaceand to collaborating more with other Organisations.This leads me to take up Dr Doyle’s kind invitationto submit recommendations for possible considerationby the Conference. I would have a two-partrecommendation to make. This is:(1) that the Conference consider adopting aResolution recognising the importance for thecommercialisation of space of the workunderway within UNIDROIT for thedevelopment of a new regimen governing thetaking of security in high-value mobileequipment, in particular space property andcalling upon all concerned, whether States orintergovernmental Organisations, to lend theirurgent and active support to U n id r o it so as topermit early completion of work on this futureProtocol; and(2) that the Conference consider issuing a relatedcall to the intergovernmental Organisationsactive in the regulation of matters pertaining to