Security in Space The Next Generation - UNIDIR

States Parties to the Treaty shall regard astronauts as envoys of mankind
in outer space and shall render to them all possible assistance in the
event of accident, distress, or emergency landing on the territory of
another State Party or on the high seas. When astronauts make such
a landing, they shall be safely and promptly returned to the State of
registry of their space vehicle.
In carrying on activities in outer space and on celestial bodies, the
astronauts of one State Party shall render all possible assistance to the
astronauts of other States Parties.
States Parties to the Treaty shall immediately inform the other States
Parties to the Treaty or the Secretary-General of the United Nations of
any phenomena they discover in outer space, including the Moon and
other celestial bodies, which could constitute a danger to the life or
health of astronauts.
7 Conference on Disarmament, Letter Dated 27 June 2002 from the
Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China and the
Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the Conference
on Disarmament Addressed to the Secretary-General of the Conference
Transmitting the Chinese, English And Russian Texts of a Working Paper
Entitled “Possible Elements for a Future International Legal Agreement
on the Prevention of the Deployment of Weapons in Outer Space,
the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects, document
CD/1679, 28 June 2002.
8 For example, the Institut de Droit de l’Espace of the Académie
Internationale d’Astronautique is dedicating one of the working sessions
of its forthcoming International Colloquium (Glasgow, September
2008) to the discussion of near-Earth objects from a legal viewpoint.
9 In 1969 Sir Francis Vallat, in those days head of the UK delegation to
the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, had already subjected
this article to severe criticism considering that it did not manage to
go beyond a loose duty of international cooperation. See “The Outer
Space Treaties”, Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, vol. 73,
1969, pp. 755 ff.
10 Lubos Perek, “Outer Space Treaty in Perspective”, Proceedings of the
40th Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space, American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1998, pp. 291–302. Also, Maureen
Williams, “The Development of Article IX of the 1967 Space Treaty”,
ibid., pp. 177–84; and Maureen Williams, El Riesgo Ambiental y su
Regulación—Derecho Internacional y Comparado, Abeledo-Perrot,
1998, chps. 1–5.
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