The ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ Concept of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention: Food for Thought to Preserve Lunar Artifacts

Abstract

With the fiftieth anniversary of the first Moon landing, the protection of the past while fostering the future of space exploration is put in the spotlight. Nowadays, new missions of exploration are being developed by States in order to return on the Moon, or to go beyond, for instance towards the red planet, Mars. In this context, there is a risk to obliterate the historical areas as Armstrong’s footprints just by sending a robot and drive over them, or a lander to the lunar surface near Apollo sites. At the moment, there are no international binding instruments that obligate to preserve them. Moreover, another important element to highlight is that there is no State of jurisdiction on these sites. Thus, the article seeks to analyze the application of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972, and in particular the ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ concept, as a core component of the Convention, to preserve lunar artifacts even though they represent sites beyond national jurisdiction. Finally, the article proposes some legal scenarios in order to protect sites on the Moon and on other celestial bodies.