ENSURING EQUAL ACCESS TO THE BENEFITS OF SPACE TECHNOLOGIES FOR ALL COUNTRIES

There is a concern in the developing world that industrialized countri es have not done all they might under Article 1 of the Outer Space Tre aty to make the benefits of space technology available to all countrie s; some are now seeking codification of rights and responsibilities in this sphere. This article discusses recent debate on the issues by CO PUOS and its Legal Subcommittee on whether an additional legal framewo rk is necessary to ensure a fairer distribution of benefits. G77 count ries were strongly in favour of some form of technology and informatio n transfer, while industrialized countries favoured the existing pract ice of developing international cooperative space projects. The author believes that a new set of principles will be formulated in the next few years and that organizations like Intelsat and Inmarsat can provid e valuable models for ensuring access through cooperative programmes.