A/RES/58/290 1. Reaffirms its strong 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; Stresses that the widest possible participation in the Kimberley Process 3. Certification Scheme is essential and should be encouraged, urges all Member States to participate actively in the Certification Scheme by complying with its undertakings, and welcomes the establishment at the plenary meeting of the Kimberley Process, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 28 to 30 April 2003, of a Participation Committee to ensure that participants and applicants willing to join the Certification Scheme meet the minimum standards; Notes with appreciation the report of the Chair of the Kimberley Process 3 4. submitted pursuant to resolution 57/302, 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 5. Organization of 15 May 2003 granting a waiver with respect to the measures taken to implement the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme; 4 6. Welcomes the progress achieved at the plenary meeting of the Kimberley Process held in Sun City, South Africa, from 29 to 31 October 2003 by the adoption of a decision on a peer review system for the effective implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme; Encourages participants in the Kimberley Process to allow voluntary 7. review visits in accordance with the decision mentioned in paragraph 6 above, and welcomes the readiness of some participants to host such visits; Also encourages participants in the Kimberley Process Certification 8. Scheme to submit annual reports on the implementation of the Certification Scheme to the Chair of the Kimberley Process; Further encourages all participants in the Kimberley Process 9. Certification 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 the Government of South Africa has made to the efforts to curb the trade in conflict diamonds in its capacity as the Chair of the Kimberley Process from May 2000 to December 2003, and welcomes the selection of Canada as the Chair and the Russian Federation as the Vice-Chair of the Process for 2004; _______________ 3 4 A/58/623, annex. See WT/L/518. Available from http://docsonline.wto.org. 3