How to Proceed with the Space Preservation Treaty

Executive Summary
Carol Rosin, Alfred Webre,
Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS).

There are two concurrent methods by which space-based weapons can be banned in 2002.

UN Member State leaders can individually sign the Space Preservation Treaty and immediately deposit it with the UN Secretary General as Treaty Depositary. Concurrently, the Space Preservation Treaty can also be signed by Member States coming together simultaneously in an International Treaty Conference. The Space Preservation Treaty would be signed by the participating Member States at the Treaty Conference, and the signed Treaty deposited with the UN Secretary General. Each signing Member State - whether individually or at the Treaty Conference - must then ratify the Treaty and deposit instruments of ratification with the UN Secretary General.

The Space Preservation Treaty would go into force as soon as the first twenty instruments of ratification were received from Member States who have signed the Treaty. Bringing the Treaty into force will establish a permanent ban on space-based weapons in 2002, together with the outer space peacekeeping agency to monitor and enforce the ban. This new Treaty entity - the Outer Space Peace-keeping Agency - has exclusive monitoring and enforcement jurisdiction in outer space.

This Executive Summary discusses how to achieve a permanent ban on all space-based weapons, and a proposal for an international Treaty Conference that will facilitate the signing of the Space Preservation Treaty. The goals of the Space Preservation Treaty Conference are for the United Nations Member State leaders to quickly approve, sign, and deposit the Space Preservation Treaty with the UN Secretary General as Treaty Depositary under Article 102 of the United Nations Charter, and to bring this Treaty into force through coordinated ratification by participating Member States.

Most world leaders are on record as wanting to preserve space as a weapons-free zone for peaceful, cooperative purposes and to ban space-based weapons. On November 29, 2001, the UN General Assembly approved by a 156-0 vote the basis for a treaty establishing a permanent ban on space-based weapons (Resolution 56/535). The Resolution stated that the Member Nations were "convinced that further measures should be examined in the search for effective and verifiable, bilateral and multilateral agreements in order to prevent an arms race in outer space, including the weaponization of outer space". On November 20, 2000, a similar UN General Assembly resolution to prevent an arms race in space (Resolution 55/32) was approved where the final adopting vote was 163-0. Among major powers, only the United States of America and Israel abstained from voting in 2000 and 2001.

The Space Preservation Treaty

The Space Preservation Treaty is based upon the operative provisions of the Space Preservation Act of 2002 (H.R. 3616), the companion bill introduced into the US House of Representatives by US Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), Co-Chair of the House Aviation and Space Caucus. This Treaty also incorporates wording and intention of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, and of international proposals to ban space-based weapons and to preserve the cooperative, peaceful uses of outer space for all humankind. The Space Preservation Treaty has been presented to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan with a copy of the companion Space Preservation Act of 2002 (H.R. 3616). This Treaty is ready to be signed, ratified, and passed into law.

The Space Preservation Treaty establishes a permanent ban on all space-based weapons, implements a ban on the use of weapons to destroy or damage objects in space that are in orbit, and terminates research and development (R&D), testing, manufacturing, production and deployment of all space-based weapons. The Treaty does not prohibit space exploration, R&D, testing, manufacturing, production, and deployment that is not related to space-based weapons or to civil, commercial, or defense activities (including communications, navigation, surveillance, reconnaissance, early warning, or remote sensing) that are not related to space-based weapons or systems.

The Space Preservation Treaty also establishes a vitally important outer space peacekeeping agency to monitor and enforce the permanent ban of all space-based weapons.

This Treaty allows for the arms race to feasibly end in 2002, before it escalates into outer space, while allowing the military industrial complex to expand into space in a way that will benefit everyone on earth. The current war-based economy and security system will be easily transformed, Aikido style, into a space age economy and security system. In other words, while the Treaty removes the mandate to weaponize space, the military industrial complex can continue to evolve into space as it has for about 50 years without space-based weapons. Fundamental R&D will continue, deployment of civil, commercial and military space endeavors and technology will continue, but this will be done within the context of a whole new way of thinking, a new space paradigm - that exists in space now and that this Treaty will preserve.

There will be R&D of new, safe, and clean technologies, products, and services that will stimulate the economy while creating exciting new jobs and training programs. The war industry will be transformed into a space industry. There will be a new security system, including a new role for the militaries, based on enhancing communication, information exchanges and on technology applications that will be directed to solving urgent and potential problems of humanity and the environment. Even adversaries will come together to reap the abundance of benefits and opportunities that will accrue. This is the moment in time, 2002, when this can be done.

It is feasible and necessary to ban space-based weapons in 2002. With the abrogation of the Anti-ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty on June 13, 2002, the resulting legal void allows for the deployment of space-based weapons. This void must be filled immediately. The Space Preservation Treaty is designed to fill that legal void and to replace the ABM Treaty.

Achieving an enforceable, permanent ban on all space-based weapons is urgent. At this moment in history, we are in imminent danger of missing our once-in-a-lifetime chance to ban all space-based weapons. The ban is absolutely within our practical reach, now, only before weapons are deployed in space and/or before a momentum of funding and vested interests gets put into place that would make the weaponization of space unstoppable. We no longer have time for debating the issue or re-writing documents.

The time has come to rise above differences and to join in solidarity to focus. With this Space Preservation Treaty, with the companion bill, with a Treaty Conference, with positive vision and commitment, and with enough of us who intend to get the job done, it is possible to ban space-based weapons in 2002. We must do this.

"Fast Track" to Ban Space-Based Weapons in 2002

The Space Preservation Treaty and the Treaty Conference represent the "Fast Track" approach to approval, signature, ratification, and depositing with the UN Secretary General as Treaty Depositary.

Note

For those who want to take a more "Institutional Track" approach by going through the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, that approach can proceed concurrently. The Preamble to the Space Preservation Treaty acknowledges the following: "Reiterating that the Conference on Disarmament, as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, has the primary role in the negotiation of a multilateral agreement or agreements, as appropriate, on the prevention of an arms race in outer space in all its aspects, as set out in United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 56/535 and 55/32 on the prevention of an arms race in outer space".

Since 1948, over 40,000 multilateral agreements or Treaties have been signed, ratified and deposited with the U.N. Secretary
General by Member States under Article 102 of the U.N. Charter. Under this Article, "every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the United Nations after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Secretariat and published by it".

The Fast Track allows for the Space Preservation Treaty and the international Treaty Conference to be the feasible mechanism by which space-based weapons can actually be banned in 2002, before space-based weapons are deployed and/or an unstoppable momentum builds. Also, this Fast Track includes the establishment of an outer space peacekeeping agency that will monitor and enforce the ban - a most necessary element to the process of banning space-based weapons.

Step One:

(Individual Signature Track) - U.N. Member State leaders can individually sign the Space Preservation Treaty and immediately deposit it with the U.N. Secretary General as Treaty Depositary, at any time. Concurrently, the Space Preservation Treaty can also be signed by Member States coming together simultaneously in an International Treaty conference. Each signing Member State - whether individually or at the Treaty conference - must then ratify the Treaty and deposit instruments of ratification with the U.N. Secretary General. The Space Preservation Treaty will go into force as soon as the first twenty instruments of ratification are received from Member States who have signed the Treaty.

Step Two:

An international Treaty Conference for the Space Preservation Treaty shall be convened as soon as possible in a designated location and under sponsorship of an appropriate and willing Member State(s) and of international NGO sponsors to facilitate the process.

This process is similar to the Treaty-signing Conference in December, 1997 that was initiated by Canada where 122 countries signed the Convention Banning Land Mines, known as the Ottawa Convention.

The Space Preservation Treaty does not have to go through the UN Conference on Disarmament, which would be a 3-5 year process. The 1997 Land Mines Treaty Conference provides a successful precedent in which a specific subject matter (land mines) was addressed outside of the UN Conference on Disarmament and was signed by 122 participating Member States through an international Treaty Conference, on the grounds of urgency.

With the stated intentions of the US to "dominate" and "control" space, and knowing he who dominates and controls space dominates and controls all on earth, with the breaking of the ABM Treaty, and given this one chance to fill that void, the Space Preservation Treaty Conference is also a matter of great urgency.

Once the Treaty Conference has been called, the Space Preservation Treaty approval process has two stages: Treaty-signing and Treaty ratification (a vote of approval by a Member State's Parliament or Congress). As the 1997 Land Mines Treaty Conference demonstrates, all of these procedures can be accomplished on an expedited basis, once participating Member States have decided to synchronize and commit their policies on banning space-based weapons.

Treaty Signing - An authorized representative of a Member State signs the Space Preservation Treaty (e.g. President, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Secretary of State). This signed copy is then deposited with the U.N. Secretary General's office as Treaty Depositary.

Treaty Ratification - The Member State also sends a copy of the signed Space Preservation Treaty to its Parliament or Congress for an emergency vote of ratification.

Once the Treaty is ratified by the Member State's Congress or Parliament, a certificate of ratification is also deposited with the U.N. Secretary General's office, as evidence that the Treaty has been signed and ratified.

Step Three:

Treaty enters into Force - As soon as the first 20 countries have signed and ratified the Space Preservation Treaty, and deposited certificates of ratification with the U.N. Secretary General's office, the Treaty goes into force. This means that all of its provisions become operative under international law, including an outer space peacekeeping agency, which can now be established (Article IV) to monitor and enforce the ban on space-based weapons.

As a practical matter, a Treaty Conference will provide those Member States leaders who have voted for a multilateral agreement banning space-based weapons in recent General Assembly resolutions with the time, place and opportunity to sign and ratify the Space Preservation Treaty.

Given the margin of approval on actual votes in the U.N. General Assembly, it is possible and feasible to get a world-wide ban on space-based weapons in 2002 because there exists the political will and consciousness among most world leaders to ban space-based weapons. In addition, this is a win-win situation for all life on earth and in the universe.

The Space Preservation Treaty, in an analogous manner to the 1945 United Nations Charter, creates a new international space Treaty entity - an outer space peacekeeping agency - comparable to the original United Nations organization. This new Treaty entity - the Outer Space Peacekeeping Agency - has exclusive monitoring and enforcement jurisdiction in outer space... to make it possible to achieve a ban on all space-based weapons and to preserve space for cooperative, peaceful purposes for the benefit of all humankind.

* The Executive Summary has been abridged for the INESAP Information Bulletin. To get the full version, please contact Carol Rosin.

See also www.peaceinspace.com