Draft Declaration of Principles Concerning Sending
Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence
International consultations should be initiated to consider
the question of sending communications to extraterrestrial
civilizations.
Consultations on whether a message should be sent, and its
content, should take place within the Committee on the Peaceful
Uses of Outer Space of the United Nations and within other
governmental and non-governmental organizations, and should
accommodate participation by qualified, interested groups that
can contribute constructively to these consultations.
These consultations should be open to participation by all
interested States and should be intended to lead to
recommendations reflecting a consensus.
The United Nations General Assembly should consider making
the decision on whether or not to send a message to
extraterrestrial intelligence, and on what the content of that
message should be, based on recommendations from the Committee
on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and from governmental and
non-governmental organizations.
If a decision is made to send a message to extraterrestrial
intelligence, it should be sent on behalf of all Humankind,
rather than from individual States.
The content of such a message should reflect a careful
concern for the broad interests and wellbeing of Humanity, and
should be made available to the public in advance of
transmission.
As the sending of a communication to extraterrestrial
intelligence could lead to an exchange of communications
separated by many years, consideration should be given to a
long-term institutional framework for such communications.
No communication to extraterrestrial intelligence should be
sent by any State until appropriate international consultations
have taken place. States should not cooperate with attempts to
communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence that do not
conform to the principles of this Declaration.
In their deliberations on these questions, States
participating in this Declaration and United Nations bodies
should draw on the expertise of scientists, scholars, and other
persons with relevant knowledge.
Proposed by the
SETI Commitee of the
International Academy of Astronautics, 1995
