19 July 2001

G8 Rome Foreign Ministers: Progress on the Miyazaki Initiatives

Attachment 1
Rome, Italy
19 July 2001

We have reviewed progress registered on the commitments that we took in Miyazaki in July 2000 and in particular:

• We welcome the significant developments on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) since Miyazaki as part of the process leading up to the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small and Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, which will conclude on 20 July 2001. These developments include relevant outcomes achieved at regional level as well as the consensus reached on the UN Protocol Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Fire Arms, Their Parts, Components and Ammunitions. We look to the Programme of Action to be decided at the UN Conference to set a comprehensive framework that will best facilitate support and assistance by the international community for concrete action in all regions of the world.

• The G8 welcomes the considerable progress made through the Kimberley Process to bring governments, industry and civil society together in an effort to break the link between the illicit trade in rough diamonds and armed conflict. We encourage the continuation of the Process in a manner that will secure transparency and accountability. We also welcome UN General Assembly Resolution 55/56 of December 2000, which calls for the development of detailed proposals for a simple and workable international scheme of certification for rough diamonds primarily based on national certification schemes. We recognise the importance of this issue and look forward to a report by the Kimberley Process to the 56^th Session of the General Assembly on progress achieved.

• Negotiations on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Children in Armed Conflict were completed and a number of world leaders signed the Protocol at the Millennium Summit in New York. We hope that the UNGA Special Session Children will also give due attention to children in armed conflict and further encourage state to ratify the ILO Convention no. 182 (1999) on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. We welcome UN Security Council Resolution 1314 on measures to protect children in armed conflict and continue to support awareness raising projects on the ground.

• We note the achievements of the UN and its member states to date in implementing the Brahimi recommendations on Civilian Policing, and encourage them to maintain their commitment to implementation. Now that the Comprehensive Review of DPKO has been issued, it is essential to pursue further implementation of the Brahimi agenda. In addition to what has been achieved so far - such as beginning a reorientation of the way the UN approaches civilian policing, with the CivPol unit being taken out of military command - further effort is needed on several key issues, such as improving the UN's early warning capabilities. We will also need to give careful consideration to the financial consequences of improvements to the UN's peacekeeping mechanisms.

• We have given special attention to the issue of conflict and development. We believe that development should mean the inclusion of all countries, and all groups within countries, in the benefits of globalization, and that such inclusion constitutes the best instrument to prevent and alleviate tensions and violent conflict. We are also convinced that preventing conflict and promoting development are mutually reinforcing and pressing top priorities on the international agenda. We are promoting the consideration of conflict prevention in development assistance strategies, with a view to achieving quicker and better co-ordinated assistance strategies �� including the HIPC initiative - and ensuring a smooth transition from relief to post-conflict development. A significant example of such consideration is the April 2001 OECD/DAC Supplement to the 1997 Guidelines ("Helping Prevent Violent Conflict: Orientations for External Partners").
  
  
• We will continue to focus attention on co-operative and sustainable water management and Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration as ways to prevent conflict and we call for more work to be done on these items.