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

EXPANDING GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES 91And, as indicated above, I agree with three of hisspecific proposals: 1) “To relate voting weight tofinancial contribution and perhaps totelecommunication usage both within and from/to aMember;” 2) To change the fees assessed by the ITU tomore of a mix of cost recovery and resource utilizationfees; and 3) To explicitly recognize the ITU’s impliedpowers. On the other hand, while agreeing with someof the argument about the need for an internationalregulatory authority beyond the ITU, I think that manyof the points are not politically feasible. Thus I preferan incremental approach to increasing internationalregulation.Commentary PaperRam JakhuMr. Chairman, my comments on Prof. Francis Lyall'spaper will be only few and very brief. Being therapporteur of this session, I had the privilege ofreceiving and reading the comments of the other twocommentators. Therefore, I would avoid repeating whatthey have already said. Secondly, my commentsprimarily relate to those issues over which I have adifference of opinion with Prof. Lyall’s paper.First of all, I want to reiterate what the two othercommentators have stated that Prof. Lyall’s paper isvery interesting, exhaustive and more importantly veryprovocative. It has, in my opinion, fully served itspurpose of being a discussion paper. I am, in general,in agreement with Prof. Lyall's suggestions andproposals for the improvement of the existingregulatory system for satellite communications.Prof. Lyall has reminded us of UNGA Resolution1721 of 1961 (which incorporates an important legalprinciple that: “communications by means of satellitesshould be available to the nations of the world as soonas practicable on a global and non-discriminatorybasis”) and has rightly used it as a yardstick to measurethe developments in the field of satellitecommunications. I will propose that we should go astep further and recommend to UNISPACE HI that thisfundamental principle should be reiterated in theConference's final report. In addition, we shouldpropose that in future an appropriate and effectiveinternational regulatory regime should be created inorder to implement, in practice, this principle. I furthersuggest that our proposal should also include thatUNISPACE III declare that radio frequencies and thegeostationary orbit as well as other orbits areinternational public property that must be used andexploited for the benefit of all nations in order toachieve the above mentioned principle of UNGAResolution 1721.Prof. Lyall argues that since some States lack theability to exercise supervisory role over its nationallegal entities that engage in the exploitation of outerspace, as required by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,ITU should be permitted not to accept from such Statesnotifications for registration of their satellites. In myopinion, it is difficult to accept this proposal becauseonce the international community accepts a country asa State, the community recognizes that that country isable to fulfill its international obligations. Theinternational community could not solve the problem of"flag of convenience" in maritime industry, I doubt thatsuch problem would be avoided in the case of outerspace exploitation.The Tongasat issue: On this issue, I have perhapsthe most serious difference of opinion with Prof. Lyall'spaper. Contrary to Prof. Lyall's views, I fully supportwhat Tonga has attempted and achieved for thefollowing reasons:(A) Tonga played according to the rules that wereinitiated, devised and strongly supported by those Statesthat objected to Tonga’s initiative. Under the ITU rules,each State has been and is allowed to secure radiofrequencies and orbital positions to meet its needs.Who determines a State’s needs? No one, but theconcerned State. These needs might be for domestic orinternational services (or what we call today "globalservices"). Some States have secured radio frequenciesand orbits for GMPCS for their national entities.Should we designate these States as ’’abusers” of theITU system?