Mr. Niklas Hedman
Niklas Hedman was appointed General Counsel of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) in March 2024. He continues to serve since 2018 as Vice-Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection, which is concerned with biological interchange in the conduct of solar system exploration and use and in avoiding organic-constituent and biological contamination by planetary missions.
Niklas retired from the United Nations in 2023, where he served as Acting Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) from March 2022 to September 2023. He was Chief of the Committee, Policy and Legal Affairs Section of UNOOSA for nearly 18 years, being Secretary of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and its Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and Legal Subcommittee. He was also Secretary of the United Nations Inter-Agency Meeting on Outer Space Activities (UN-Space), which is the central coordination mechanism for space-related activities in the United Nations system. He was responsible for the Office’s capacity-building programme in space law and policy.
Before joining the United Nations in 2006, Niklas served in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, working particularly in the areas of ocean affairs and the law of the sea, including on boundary delimitation, fisheries, maritime traffic, and the International Seabed Authority; space affairs and space law; as well as disarmament and arms control, including on the Biological Weapons Convention, the prevention of an arms race in outer space (PAROS), and The Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCoC). He represented Sweden to COPUOS for 10 years and held various elected positions, including Chair of the Working Group in charge of the UNISPACE III+5 report (A/59/174). He represented Sweden to the final rounds of negotiations on the International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement (ISS-IGA) and was chief negotiator to the governmental framework agreement on space cooperation between Sweden and the United States of America.
Niklas holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) degree from Uppsala University, Sweden, including advanced specialization in petroleum law, maritime law and marine insurance law from Oslo University. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) degree from the National University of Singapore, including United Nations law, law of the sea, and Chinese business law.
He received the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) Distinguished Service Award in 2017.
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