Moon Treaty

Template:International ownership conventions The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, better known as the Moon Treaty or Moon Agreement, is an international treaty that turns jurisdiction of all celestial bodies (including the orbits around such bodies) over to the international community. Thus, all activities must conform to international law, including the United Nations Charter.

In practice it is a failed treaty because it has not been ratified by any state that engages in self-launched manned space exploration or has plans to do so (e.g. the United States, the larger part of the member states of the European Space Agency, Russia (former Soviet Union), People's Republic of China, Japan, and India) since its creation in 1979, and thus has a negligible effect on actual spaceflight. As of November 2016, it has been ratified by 17 states.

Provisions

As a follow-on to the Outer Space Treaty, the Moon Treaty intended to establish a regime for the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies similar to the one established for the sea floor in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The treaty would apply to the Moon and to other celestial bodies within the Solar System, other than Earth, including orbits around or other trajectories to or around them.Template:Citation needed

The treaty makes a declaration that the Moon should be used for the benefit of all states and all peoples of the international community. It also expresses a desire to prevent the Moon from becoming a source of international conflict. To those ends the treaty does the following:Template:Citation needed

• Bans any military use of celestial bodies, including weapon testing or as military bases.
• Bans all exploration and uses of celestial bodies without the approval or benefit of other states under the common heritage of mankind principle (article 11).
• Requires that the Secretary-General must be notified of all celestial activities (and discoveries developed thanks to those activities).
• Declares all states have an equal right to conduct research on celestial bodies.
• Declares that for any samples obtained during research activities, the state that obtained them must consider making part of it available to all countries/scientific communities for research.
• Bans altering the environment of celestial bodies and requires that states must take measures to prevent accidental contamination.
• Bans any state from claiming sovereignty over any territory of celestial bodies.
• Bans any ownership of any extraterrestrial property by any organization or person, unless that organization is international and governmental.
• Requires an international regime be set up to ensure safe and orderly development and management of the resources and sharing of the benefits from them.

Ratification

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Participation in the Moon Treaty Template:Legend Template:Legend Template:Legend

The treaty was finalized in 1979 and entered into force for the ratifying parties in 1984. As of November 2016, 17 states are parties to the treaty, seven of which ratified the agreement and the rest acceded. Four additional states have signed but not ratified the treaty. The L5 Society and others successfully opposed ratification of the treaty by the United States Senate.

The objection to the treaty by the spacefaring nations is held to be the requirement that extracted resources (and the technology used to that end) must be shared with other nations. The similar regime in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is believed to impede the development of such industries on the seabed.

List of parties

State	Signed	Deposited	Method
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Template:Flag	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Ratification
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Template:Flag	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Ratification
Template:Flag		Template:Dts	Accession
Template:Flag		Template:Dts	Accession
Template:Flag		Template:Dts	Accession
Template:Flag		Template:Dts	Accession
Template:Flag	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Ratification
Template:Flag	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Ratification
Template:Flag		Template:Dts	Accession
Template:Flag	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Ratification
Template:Flag	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Ratification
Template:Flag		Template:Dts	Accession
Template:Flag		Template:Dts	Accession
Template:Flag	Template:Dts	Template:Dts	Ratification
Template:Flag		Template:Dts	Accession

List of signatories

State	Signed
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External links

• Treaty Text — "Agreement Governing The Activities Of States On the Moon And Other Celestial Bodies" (1979)
• Official Treaty Site — United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), including versions of the treaty in several languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.