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The Operational Board of the International Space Charter , addressed a formal letter to UNITAR in June 2009 confirming the central role of the UNOSAT Programme in triggering and using the Charter mechanism in support of humanitarian emergency relief in case of major natural and technological.

 

UNOSAT has been the major conduit for years in a series of activations of this important mechanism by UN operational agencies having a stake in humanitarian response. The technical skills of UNOSAT in the areas of satellite data processing and analysis allow for the acquisition and elaboration of satellite data, optical and radar, that the Charter can provide free of charge in the aftermath of major disasters worldwide.

 

This mechanism, devised in 2000 by the European Space Agency and various other national space agencies, is the result of a strategic move by the space sector to help the international community react efficiently to emergency situations. The Charter thus provides data for free to a network of value adding entities, including UNOSAT, able to run the appropriate analysis and transform the data into useful geospatial information. These are then used by international relief agencies and by national governmental experts to organise and guide relief operations to respond to disasters. UNOSAT contributes in-kind to this arrangement by providing cost-free analysis, mapping and dissemination services.

 

The United Nations became eligible to activate this mechanism in 2003, the year in which UNOSAT launched its humanitarian rapid mapping service. Since then tens of “calls” have been addressed by the UN to the Charter via UNOSAT and via UN/OOSA, the other UN entity entitled to activate the Space Charter. In 2008, the Operational Board of the Charter recognised formally the vital role of UNOSAT, which was again confirmed in June 2009 with a letter designating formally UNOSAT as “Charter User Intermediary”. This status grants the privilege “to act as gateway for request submissions on behalf of UN users related with humanitarian actions”.

 

In addition, the Charter Board in its letter welcomes the UNITAR offer to collaborate on specific training activities for humanitarian users and emergency managers in developing countries, in view of the expanding range of training modules offered by UNITAR/UNOSAT in the area of satellite solutions.

 

To learn more about the Charter and see promotional documents, click here

To see UNOSAT mapping products, click here

To contact UNOSAT: Unosat@unitar.org