The sixteenth annual report of the International Charter is now available, and describes the Charter's activities throughout 2016.

The Charter was activated 36 times in 2016, covering disasters in 24 countries. Between other activations, the Charter was triggered for the Ecuador earthquake on 16 April, affecting more than 380,000 and killing 673 people, and Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean and USA; affecting more than 2,000,000 and killing 601 people.

The Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities (ABAE) of Venezuela was integrated into the Charter. The Charter conducted the official signature ceremony, that marked the accession of ABAE to the Charter during the 36^th Board meeting in Moscow, Russia on 17-20 October 2016.

Following the request of the United Arab Emirate Space Agency (UAESA) to become a Charter member, supported by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), representatives from UAESA introduced their organisation during the 37^th Charter Board meeting in Oxford, UK on 24-28 April 2017.

The Charter also continued its collaboration with the CEOS Working Group on Disasters to allow CEOS Pilot teams to access Charter data in order to support their research, once an activation is closed.

The new web-based Charter Operational System (COS-2) became operational in March 2015 and it has been used successfully in all Charter calls.

The Universal Access process is also progressing, and expanded the network of Authorised Users reaching a total of 63 user organisations in 53 countries and the European Commission in 2016.