In the context of the present analysis a small bloc of States situated at the Equator has put forward claims to special rights in the area of the space environment in which geostationary space objects can conveniently orbit. 1.4 Composition of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space In the past the major space States, particularly the United States and the Soviet Union, have very substantially influenced--either by their action or their inaction--the development of international space law at the United Nations. In 1958 the General Assembly established an Ad Hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space consisting of 18 members of which three were within the Soviet bloc, namely, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The other members of the committee were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Sweden, the United Arab Republic, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Soviets considered the committee to 2 be "one-sided and heavily weighted in favor of the Western powers." Consequently, the three socialist States refused to participate in the meetings of the committee. Joining the boycott were India and the UAR who considered that the committee could not usefully serve its purposes in the absence of the Soviet Union. Through General Assembly Resolution 1472 (XIV) of December 12, 1959 COPUOS was established. To the Ad Hoc committee members were added Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania of the socialist bloc and also Austria and Lebanon. In this manner the 18-member Ad Hoc committee was n "Unanimity on Outer Space," 6 United Nations Review 18 (February 1960).
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