What is Universal Access?
Building on a decade of success in making satellite data available for disaster response, the International Charter is opening its doors even wider. The Charter Members have adopted the principle of Universal Access to further strengthen the Charter's contribution to disaster management worldwide.
Any national disaster management authority is able to submit requests to the Charter for emergency response. Proper procedures must be followed, but the affected country does not have to be a Charter member.
Universal Access benefits national disaster management authorities in countries beyond those of the Charter members.
Universal Access in numbers
Today, Universal Access allows 98 national users from 87 countries to directly submit emergency requests as Authorized Users.
In addition, the Charter collaborates with Sentinel Asia, a regional network for Earth observation-based Emergency response in 28 countries (91 national organisations) and 15 International Organizations, and with UNITAR/UNOSAT and UNOOSA, active in many countries and who can submit requests to support in-country relief agencies of the United Nations.
All countries of the world can benefit from the Charter by any of the ways described above. Since 2000, there have been 942 activations covered in 136 countries worldwide.
Countries with direct access to the Charter
As of November 2024
The following countries are represented above:
- Algeria,
- Argentina,
- Armenia,
- Australia,
- Belarus,
- Bolivia,
- Brazil,
- Cameroon,
- Canada,
- Chile,
- China,
- Colombia,
- Costa Rica,
- Dominican Republic,
- Ecuador,
- El Salvador,
- Eswatini,
- Gambia,
- Ghana,
- Guatemala,
- Guinea,
- Haiti,
- Honduras,
- India,
- Iraq,
- Japan,
- Kenya,
- Korea,
- Madagascar,
- Malawi,
- Mexico,
- Mongolia,
- Myanmar,
- New Caledonia,
- New Zealand,
- Nicaragua,
- Niger,
- Nigeria,
- Norway,
- Pakistan,
- Panama,
- Paraguay,
- Peru,
- Russia,
- Saint Vincent and Grenadines,
- South Africa,
- Sri Lanka,
- Sudan,
- Switzerland,
- Tanzania,
- Trinidad and Tobago,
- Tunisia,
- Türkiye,
- UAE,
- USA,
- Uruguay,
- Venezuela and the countries of the European Union.