A/RES/56/263 2. Recognizes that the proposed international certification scheme for rough diamonds would also help to ensure the effective implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions 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; 3. Welcomes the detailed proposals for an international certification scheme for rough diamonds developed in the Kimberley Process and presented in the form of Kimberley Process working document 9/2001 (as amended), entitled “Essential elements of an international scheme of certification for rough diamonds, with a view to breaking the link between armed conflict and the trade in rough diamonds”, dated 29 November 2001, 2 which provide a good basis for the proposed certification scheme; 4. Encourages the Kimberley Process to resolve outstanding issues; 5. Emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the measures taken to implement the international certification scheme for rough diamonds are consistent with international law governing international trade; 6. Urges the finalization of the international certification scheme and its subsequent implementation as soon as possible, recognizing the urgency of the situation from a humanitarian and security standpoint; 7. Underlines the need, as an essential tool for the successful implementation of the proposed international certification scheme, for the collation and dissemination of relevant statistical data on the production of and international trade in rough diamonds; 8. Supports the extension of the work of the Kimberley Process until such time as an international certification scheme is adopted and its simultaneous implementation by participants begins; 9. Urges Member States to participate actively in the proposed international certification scheme, and stresses that the widest possible participation in the proposed international certification scheme is essential and should be encouraged and facilitated; 10. Welcomes the offer by the Government of Canada to host the next meeting of the Kimberley Process in Ottawa, in order to achieve further progress; 11. Requests the countries participating in the Kimberley Process to submit to the General Assembly, no later than at its fifty-seventh session, a report on progress made; 12. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its fifty-seventh session the item entitled “The role of diamonds in fuelling conflict”. 96th plenary meeting 13 March 2002 _______________ 2 See A/56/775, annex VIII. 3