GMES and the Charter for Space and Major Disasters: another "Responsibility to Protect"?
- Paper number
IAC-06-E6.2.05
- Author
Dr. Olivier Ribbelink, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Netherlands
- Year
2006
- Abstract
GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters connect the monitoring of the environment, including natural and/or technological (including man-made) disasters with security. GMES specifically refers to security in relation to the environment acknowledging the role of environmental degradation and competition for natural resources as sources of tension that can lead to civil and international strife. In the same GMES texts reference is made to sustainable development as a paramount objective of the EU, e.g. as in the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development, as well as to developing the market for European industry, e.g. as in the European Strategy for Space. While the Charter on Space and Major Disasters is based on voluntary cooperation, including the activation of the system by affected states, the effect may be that others obtain first-hand knowledge about specific situations. Both GMES and the Charter invoke questions for example about the handling of the obtained information (who decides what to do and when?), as well as about the responsibility for undertaking action, either in the form of (direct) intervention in the handling of the specific situation, or with regard to for example public disclosure of the failure to act by the affected state. And, can and/or do states with knowledge of a specific situation, obtained through remote sensing, have a right or even an obligation under international law to act?
- Abstract document