Decision: The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space agrees on the following tentative dates for its own meeting and the meetings of its subcommittees in 2021: The Legal Subcommittee meets annually for two weeks to consider legal issues related to the exploration and use of outer space. Topics covered include the status and application of the five United Nations treaties on outer space, the definition and delimitation of outer space, national space legislation, legal mechanisms to mitigate space debris and international mechanisms for cooperation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space. Further to its previous communication with ref: OOSA/2020/39 – CU/2020/430 of 18 December 2020, silence procedure until Wednesday 23. December 2020, 15:00 (Vienna time), a draft decision on the amendment of the 2021 workplan of the Committee and its subsidiary bodies, UNOOSA, in its capacity as Secretariat of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its subcommittees, is pleased to announce that the silent procedure has been concluded without objection. The Committee is overseen by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. The Office supports the work of the Committee and implements a multidimensional programme covering the scientific, technical, legal and political aspects of outer space activities. The Working Group was established under the agenda item of the Legal Subcommittee entitled “General exchange of views on potential legal models for activities relating to the exploration, use and utilization of space resources” at the sixtieth meeting of the Legal Subcommittee, in 2021, and renamed the Working Group on Legal Aspects of Space Resources Activities at the sixty-first meeting of the Legal Subcommittee in 2022. For working group documents, please click here. The general mandate of the Committee and its two subcommittees is aimed at strengthening the international legal system relating to outer space, thereby improving the conditions conducive to the development of international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.
The terms of reference also state that the Committee should support national, regional and global efforts, including those of entities of the United Nations system and space-related international entities, to maximize the benefits of the use of space science and technology and their applications. Overall, the Committee seeks to enhance the coherence and synergy of international cooperation in space activities at all levels. The briefing will take place on Monday 14 March 2022, from 14:00 to 15:00 CET (14:00 – 15:00 Vienna time). This working group deals with various issues related to the definition and delimitation of outer space. It reviews, inter alia, information on national legislation and practices relating to the definition and delimitation of outer space and considers replies from States and international organizations to questionnaires on questions relating to the definition and delimitation of outer space and on issues related to suborbital flights for scientific and/or human space missions. For working group documents, please click here. To access all meeting documents and the entire database under UNOOSA. A separate website is available for working group members. The Working Group on the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space has a long history of productive work in the areas it considers. In 2009, the working group, in collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), developed the safety framework for nuclear energy applications in outer space. The Working Group is currently working in accordance with the objectives of its multi-year work plan for 2010-2017, namely: Having regard to the draft resolution entitled “Fiftieth anniversary of the First United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space: outer space as an engine for sustainable development”, contained in document A/AC.105/L.313 and approved by the Committee at its 61st session, The Committee decided to add a new item entitled “Space 2030 Agenda” to its agenda, which will remain on its agenda until its sixty-third session in 2020. The Committee agreed to establish a working group on this item.
More information is available here. Links to all technical presentations made by delegations during current and past meetings are available here. Details on how to create a technical presentation can be found here. At its sixty-first session, held from 20 to 29 June 2018, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space agreed that, under the agenda item of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee on Space and Global Health, a working group chaired by Antoine Geissbühler (Switzerland) should be convened at the fifty-sixth session of the Subcommittee in 2019. The Committee further decided that the Chairman of the newly established Working Group, jointly with the Secretariat, should submit to the Subcommittee at its fifty-sixth session a proposal for a multi-year workplan for the Working Group, taking into account the role of the Space and Global Health Expert Group. The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) was established by the General Assembly in 1959. Since its establishment, the membership of the Committee has steadily increased. The Committee was the only committee of the General Assembly devoted exclusively to international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, and its role as a forum for monitoring and reviewing developments in the exploration and use of outer space had evolved in tandem with technological advances in space exploration, geopolitical changes and changes in the use of space science and technology.
for sustainable development. Further decisions concerning the work of the newly established Working Group are contained in the report of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on the work of its sixty-first session, from 20 to 29 September. June 2018, paragraphs 358-363. At its fifty-eighth session, in April 2021, the Subcommittee elected Umamaheswaran R. (India) as Chairman of the Working Group on the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities and convened the Working Group (A/AC.105/1240, para. 195). At the fifty-ninth session of the Subcommittee on Science and Technology, held in February 2022, the Working Group agreed on its terms of reference, methods of work and workplan (A/AC.105/1258, annex II, para. 7 and annex) and the measures were endorsed by the Subcommittee (A/AC.105/1258, by. 209).
Accordingly, the following resolution is deemed adopted by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space at 15:01 (Vienna time) on 23 December 2020: For information – the cancellation of the meeting of the working group during the 63rd session of COPUOS from 17 to 26 December 2020. June 2020 At the fifty-ninth session of the Committee, in 2016, the Working Group was identified as a mechanism under thematic priority 2. “Legal regime in outer space and global governance: current and future prospects” (A/71/20, para. 296), endorsed by the Committee in preparation for UNISPACE+50. For working group documents, please click here. The United Nations will provide simultaneous interpretation of the negotiations to facilitate communication. To access all digital recordings of the current session, please click below.