A/RES/59/144 1. Reaffirms its strong and continuing support for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme;1 2. Recognizes that the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme can help to ensure the effective implementation of relevant resolutions of the Security Council containing sanctions on the trade in conflict diamonds, and calls for the full implementation of existing Council measures targeting the illicit trade in rough diamonds that play a role in fuelling conflict; Also recognizes the important contributions that the international efforts 3. to address the problem of conflict diamonds, including the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, have made to the settlement of conflicts in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the ongoing value of the Certification Scheme as a mechanism for the prevention of future conflicts; Stresses that the widest possible participation in the Kimberley Process 4. Certification Scheme is essential and should be encouraged, and urges all Member States to participate actively in the Certification Scheme by complying with its undertakings; Notes with appreciation the report of the Chair of the Kimberley Process 5. submitted pursuant to resolution 58/290, 3 and congratulates the Governments, regional economic integration organization representatives, the organized diamond industry and civil society participating in the Kimberley Process for contributing to the development and implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme; Takes note of the decision of the General Council of the World Trade 6. Organization of 15 May 2003 granting a waiver with respect to the measures taken to implement the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, effective from 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2006; 4 7. Welcomes the progress achieved at the plenary meeting of the Kimberley Process held in Gatineau, Canada, from 27 to 29 October 2004, expanding the mandate of the Participation Committee to advise the Chair on matters of noncompliance by participants; Also welcomes the important progress made towards the implementation 8. of the peer review mechanism, including the submission of annual reports by all participants and the completion of eleven voluntary review visits, and encourages all remaining participants to receive voluntary review visits; Encourages all participants in the Kimberley Process Certification 9. Scheme to collate and submit relevant statistical data on the production of and international trade in rough diamonds as a tool for effective implementation and as envisaged by the Certification Scheme; 10. Acknowledges with great appreciation the important contribution that Canada, as Chair of the Kimberley Process in 2004, has made to the efforts to curb the trade in conflict diamonds, and welcomes the succession of the Russian Federation as Chair and Botswana as Vice-Chair of the Process for 2005; _______________ 3 4 A/59/590, annex. See World Trade Organization, document WT/L/518. Available from http://docsonline.wto.org. 3