Draft Treaty on the Neutralization of Outer Space

The States Parties to this treaty,

Guided by the goals of strengthening international peace and security,

Conscious of their international obligations as expressed in the United Nations Charter, that they settle their disputes peacefully, refraining from the threat or use of force against each other,

Aware of the principle of sovereign equality and non-discrimination,

Recalling: The Treaty Banning Nuclear Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water 1963;
The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, 1977;
and wishing, in the light of the danger to civilian use of outer space by the pollution of space debris, to avoid adding to it by destructive military use within the region of Earth Orbit,

Recalling: The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, 1968;
The Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space, 1968;
The Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, 1972;
The Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, 1972; et al,

Taking into account the need to clarify the provisions of the above so as to retain outer space as a global commons for the good of all humanity against the threat of its annexation for military purposes,

Noting: The International Telecommunications Union Convention, 1973;
and other international agreements on the peaceful use of outer space,

Recalling: The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Systems, 1972;
The Interim Agreement between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Certain Measures with Respect to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, 1972;
The Treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, 1979;
and the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, 1993, et al

Noting that the above agreements effectively neutralized Earth Orbit by permitting national technical means of verification and repudiating any right to interfere with such national technical means of verification, in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Hague Convention on Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land, 1907;
and the Hague Convention on Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War, 1907;
and wishing to extend their scope on the basis of the sovereign equality of States Members of the United Nations,

Noting the provisions protecting artificial satellites in:
The Agreement on Measures to Reduce the Outbreak of Nuclear War Between the USA and the USSR, 1971;
The Agreement Between the USA and the USSR on the Prevention of Nuclear War, 1973;
The Agreement on Measures to Improve the USA-USSR Direct Communications Link, 1975; et al,
and wishing to extend their scope on the basis of the sovereign equality of States Members of the United Nations,

Convinced that this Treaty on the Neutralization of Outer Space will further the purposes of the United Nations and materially strengthen international peace and security,

HAVE AGREED ON THE FOLLOWING:


CHAPTER I:

The Declaration of the Neutralization of Outer Space.

Article 1: Outer Space including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is to be used for exclusively peaceful purposes.

Article 2: States Parties hereby undertake permanently to neutralize Outer Space in due accordance with international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, as provided for in the following substantive Articles to this Treaty.

Article 3: States Parties hereby undertake to respect the permanently neutralized status of Outer Space in accordance with international law, including the Charter of the United Nations, as provided for in the following procedural articles to this Treaty.

Article 4: States Parties hereby undertake to use space objects in strict accordance with international law, in the interests of maintaining international peace and security.

Article 5: Any threat of use of force in outer space against objects in outer space, in the atmosphere, or on the Earth including its seas, or on the Earth against objects in outer space, or any hostile act or threat of hostile act in outer space, is hereby prohibited.

Article 6: States Parties hereby undertake never to engage in national appropriation of outer space by means of military aggrandisment, acts of aggression, or such means.

Article 7: Outer Space is hereby declared the common heritage of mankind, as defined and declared in this Treaty by the prohibition of military aggrandisment and aggression therein, and pending the development of an equitable regime for its exploitation in due accordance with the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, and its subsidiary instruments.

Article 8: Activities contravening this Treaty are acts of aggression and threaten international peace and security.

Article 9: Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as prejudicing the inalienable right of States, Parties to this Treaty and the Treaty on the Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, and its subsidiary instruments, to use military personnel and such equipment as may be considered necessary, for scientific research - provided that such military personnel and equipment are seconded to civilian control for the term of such employment.

Article 10: Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as prejudicing action by internationally respectable Space Agencies, to carry out rescue missions, remove space debris, or salvage defunct satellites. This Article may not under any circumstance whatever, be misinterpreted as permitting or implying for any military Space Agency belonging to a State Party to this or any previous instrument of international space law, a "right" to "remove" space objects of any description whatever belonging to any other State or States Parties to this Treaty, without due consultation.


CHAPTER II:

Relevant Definitions

Article 11: Outer Space is defined as:

  1. not excluding the sub-orbital regions, where an object is not yet at orbital velocity, but is either in transition to orbital velocity or in a parabolic path not resembling ordinary flight.
  2. including outer space bodies such as the moon.
Article 12: For the purposes of this treaty, an active weapon system is defined as:

  1. a weapon system with the designed purpose and intended capability of damaging, destroying, disturbing the normal functioning, disrupting the normal flight path or trajectory, or rendering in any way inoperable, defunct or incapable of fulfilling its functions in part or in full, of any space object of any description whatever.
  2. a weapon system with the designed purpose and intended capability of the bombardment of Earth itself, and the damaging, destroying, or the rendering unusable, uninhabitable, of any target on Earth of any description whatever.
Article 13: Nothing in the above definition of an active weapon system or in the provisions of this Treaty is altered by the physical principles on which such an active weapon system operates.

Article 14: Nothing in the above definition of an active weapon system or in the provisions of this Treaty is altered by the declared nature of such an active weapon system, whether declared to be defensive, deterrence or offensive.

Article 15: Nothing in this Treaty shall apply to:

  1. extraterrestrial material or space debris that, in the natural course of transit through the Earth-Moon system, damages or disables any space object or any description whatever.
  2. extraterrestrial material or space debris that in the natural course of events and following an orbit undisturbed by artificial means, reaches the surface of the Earth.
Article 16:
  1. For the purposes of this treaty, space objects are defined as including:

    1. launch vehicles, including the constituting stages, and any clip-on boosters;
    2. artificial satellites;
    3. unmanned spacecraft and scientific probes;
    4. reusable and non-reusable manned spacecraft, including re-entry vehicles;
    5. manned orbital space stations, bases and settlements, whether in orbit or emplaced on a celestial body of any description whatever;
  2. This definition is not exhaustive.
Article 17:
  1. For the purposes of this Treaty, targets on the Earth are defined as including:

    1. individual targets on the Earth's surface, in its atmosphere or in its waters, such as land, air/space and water vehicles;
    2. human dwellings, such as cities, towns, villages and suchlike;
    3. regions of the ecosphere and the human environment;
    pursuant to obligations freely undertaken pursuant to their sovereign rights, by States Parties to this Treaty and to the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Geneva Conventions of 1864, 1948, and the Geneva Additional Protocols of 1977, and other comparable instruments of international law and common human morality.
  2. This definition is not exhaustive.
Article 18:
  1. Included in the definition of active weapon systems are the following:

    1. the warhead, or some such analogous device, such as the beam-projection unit of a directed beam weapon;
    2. the support machinery, such as the launcher for kinetic impact weapons, and the power source for directed energy weapons;
    3. the distance measuring and tracking devices if designed solely for the purpose of supporting the use of an active weapons system;
  2. This definition is not exhaustive.
Article 19:
  1. The threat or use of force is defined by its prohibition in Chapter III.
  2. The hostile acts and threats of hostile acts include:

    1. the gratuitous production of space debris with the resulting forethought murderous threat to manned space objects, by testing anti-satellite and anti-missile weaponry in earth orbit, whether it be low earth orbit, mid earth orbit, or high earth orbit;
    2. the establishment of space stations solely for use as military bases;
    3. the denial or delay of all possible assistance for reasons of state and not of physics, to any astronaut in peril of his life, in opposition to all humanitarian and moral law.
  3. This definition is not exhaustive.

CHAPTER III:

Obligations and Duties of States Parties

Article 20: States Parties undertake never to place in orbit around the Earth, around the Sun, around the Moon or any other celestial body, station in outer space in any other manner, including on celestial bodies of any description, and on any space object of any description, or in free trajectory, any active weapon system as defined and detailed in Chapter II.

Article 21: States Parties undertake never to emplant, emplace, store, stockpile, station, install, transport, or deploy at any point on the Earth's surface, or in its depths, or in airspace, or in its seas including the international, territorial, internal or inland waters, including the seabed, the ocean floor and the subsoil thereof, any active weapon system as defined and detailed in Chapter II.

Article 22: States Parties undertake never to use any space object as defined and detailed in Chapter II, with active weapon systems capability but with the designed purpose and intended capability not being that of an active weapon system as defined and detailed in Chapter II, as an active weapon system as defined and detailed in Chapter II.

Article 23: States Parties undertake never to use any extraterrestrial material or space debris as an active weapon system as defined and etailed in Chapter II.

Article 24: States Parties undertake never to use any radiocommunications device, or radar, or any other telecommunications device based on other principles or wavelengths, with active weapon systems capability but with the designed purpose and intended capability not being that of an active weapon system as defined and detailed in Chapter II, as an active weapon system as defined and etailed in Chapter II.

Article 25: States Parties undertake never to use any space object as defined and detailed in Chapter II to support any of the actions prohibited by consent in previous Articles of this Chapter.

Article 26: States Parties undertake never to use any radiocommunications device, or radar, or any other telecommunications device, or radiometric device based on different principles or wavelengths, to support any of the actions prohibited by consent in previous Articles of this Chapter.

Article 27: The term "Space Object" as defined and detailed in Chapter II, may not be interpreted as implying any right to design, develop, test, or manufacture any active weapon system as defined and detailed in Chapter II.

Article 28: States Parties undertake never to design, develop, test or manufacture any space object of any description, as an active weapon system as defined and detailed in Chapter II, for either themselves or for States Parties or not Parties with which they may have defense treaty relations.

Article 29: Pursuant to the requirements of good faith, States Parties therefore hereby undertake, pursuant to their obligations under General Assembly Resolution 1721(XVI) B, the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, and the Provisions of this Treaty, to report in detail to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the designed purpose and intended capability of every space object for which they or their private citizens, are individually or collectively responsible.

Article 30: States Parties do therefore hereby pledge and undertake to destroy any active weapon system as defined and detailed in Chapter II, that may be in their possession, or in their territory and under their jurisdiction, or belonging to them, or may be proved to have been or to be in their possession, under strict international scrutiny and control.

Article 31:

  1. States Parties undertake never to assume any international obligations that would conflict with this treaty, and to revise any current international obligations that would conflict with this treaty;
  2. States Parties undertake to report the results of any such revision of pre-existing obligations to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.


CHAPTER IV:

Assurance of Compliance

Article 32: For the purposes of providing assurance of compliance with the provisions of this Treaty, States Parties shall:

  1. use national technical means of verification at their disposal in a manner consistent with generally recognized principles of international law;
  2. furnish to all States Parties not currently in possession or hire of national technical means of verification, with all the data necessary for this purpose on request or challenge;
  3. not interfere with national technical means of verification of other States Parties operating in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2, pursuant to their obligations in Chapter III;
  4. not use deliberate concealment measures which impede verification by national technical means of compliance with the provisions of this Treaty.

Article 33: For the purposes of providing assurance of compliance with the provisions of this Treaty, States Parties shall:

  1. furnish to all States Parties full information about their launch and recovery sites, manufacturers, laboratories for research and industrial matters concerning outer space, manned space objects including space stations, and all other related matters;
  2. grant all States Parties access rights under challenge, to all relevant sites;
  3. have the inalienable right to conduct on-site inspections;
  4. not use deliberate concealment measures which impede and interfere with verification by on-site inspections.

Article 34: For the purposes of providing assurance of compliance with the provisions of this Treaty, States Parties shall:

  1. place all projects under debate or challenge as to their legality with relation to the provisions of this Treaty, under strict international control and scrutiny;
  2. not misuse or abuse the rights granted by this Treaty, for the contravention of it and the Charter of the United Nations.