WILPF Statement in support of
Keep Space for Peace Week

Fifty years ago, on 4 October 1957, the launch of the Sputnik satellite changed the world forever.  A new era of political, military, technological, and scientific developments began as the world entered the space age.  Sputnik roused fears of an arms race in outer space.

Ten years later, on 10 October 1967, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) welcomed the Outer Space Treaty (the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies), which sought to ensure the peaceful uses of space for the benefit of all humankind. 

On the 40th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty, WILPF reaffirms that treaty’s goals. We welcome the progress made in cooperation for peaceful purposes, and in the development of space law as reported by the third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) conference.

Since then, however, one country, the United States, has rapidly and unilaterally proceeded to militarize its own considerable space assets. It has utilized space to fight wars on Earth, to develop a prompt global strike capacity, and to launch satellite-controlled bombs in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  Its proclaimed goal is “full spectrum dominance ” in land, sea, air, and space, and seizing the ultimate military “high ground.”  This same nation is developing missile defense systems which, though as yet malfunctioning, many believe are intended as shields for offensive use of nuclear weapons, and have dual applications as offensive space weapons.

These provocative policies, just sixteen years after the Cold War’s end, are already instigating a new arms race in space that will devour resources needed for sustenance of human life, bring death and devastation, and very possibly lead to global war more devastating than any Earth has yet known. The weaponization of space will lead to an increase in geopolitical tensions, a decrease of transparency and international security, and the proliferation of space debris, which, after 50 years of space activity, already poses a considerable hazard to spacecraft.

We must stop this military madness! The world has had enough of war and destruction!  Where are the visions of the UN Charter to prevent future generations experiencing war, and the call for general and complete disarmament?  Will we let the web of human rights and disarmament treaties unravel, and the institutions of peace we’ve built together collapse? Space must be demilitarized, and space weaponization must not proceed.

Within the United Nations, general agreement has developed that an arms race in outer space must be prevented. On this fortieth anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty, WILPF calls on all nations and peoples to cooperate in negotiation of new and stronger terms to keep space for peace.

WILPF calls on the governments of Norway, Australia, Japan, Canada, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, and others, to cease cooperating with space militarization, to deny use of their space assets for military purposes and to reject “missile defense” or radome bases on their territories.  Instead, they should recognize that their own citizens oppose the diversion of human and economic resources into schemes that that will enrich a handful of corporate investors, while seriously undermining human security, human rights, and sustainable development. 

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) has been stalled for 11 years, and on the issue of the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS), the US is blocking progress. It is difficult to imagine that the rest of the international community will be able to prevent the weaponization of space without the full cooperation of the US, given that the US has the largest number of space assets and commands the greatest control over outer space resources. We call on the citizens of the United States to join us in insisting that their country use space assets only for peaceful purposes, and not for the destruction of life, or of other lands and cultures.

There may be other ways to move forward on PAROS outside of the CD. The Fourth Committee of the General Assembly (Special Political and Decolonisation) has discussed issues related to preserving outer space for peaceful uses and could initiate PAROS negotiations.  The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), established in 1959 is also capable of negotiating legal instruments, including treaties. Whatever the source, the monitoring of space law and negotiations to strengthen this law must move forward with new vigour.

Let us together keep both Earth and space for peace in our lifetimes and for our descendants in the generations to come.