PREAMBLE

We, Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region;

Reaffirming the Dar-es-Salaam Declaration on Peace, Security, Democracy and Development in the Great Lakes Region adopted and signed in the United Republic of Tanzania, on 20 November 2004;

Deeply concerned about the endemic conflict and persistent insecurity caused or aggravated by, inter alia, economic stagnation and extreme poverty, massive violations of human rights and other practices of exclusion and marginalization, gender inequality, poor management of the environment, and the illegal exploitation of natural resources;

Recognizing the efforts taken at the national, regional and international levels to bring about comprehensive and durable solutions to these endemic issues;

Reaffirming the obligations inscribed in the principles and directives of the United Nations Charter and in the Constitutive Act of the African Union such as territorial integrity, sovereignty, non-interference and non-aggression, prohibition of any Member State to allow the use of its territory as a base for acts of aggression and subversion against another Member State, as well as the need for a real and sustained political will to jointly seek peaceful solutions and especially to honour our commitments in a spirit of mutual trust;

Recognizing the right to development, as expressed in the United Nations General Assembly resolution no. 41/128 of 4^th of December 1986, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two optional Protocols, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the United Nations Millennium Declaration, especially on the matter of development and poverty eradication;

Draft Protocol on the Specific Reconstruction and Development Zone

Fully aware of the link between peace and development, and conscious of the numerous economic, political, reconstruction and development initiatives and efforts undertaken at the national, regional and international levels in addressing the challenges of economic development and regional integration;

Convinced of the central role of the free movement of persons, labour, goods and services, within the Great Lakes Region;

Reaffirming, the commitment to build an integrated economic space so as to enhance economic efficiency, eradicate poverty and promote the regional reconstruction of productive sectors and infrastructure;

Aware of the need to ensure a common front to engage international partners in issues such as market access and debt cancellation;

Resolved to build a Great Lakes Region that is open to other regions of the world by building our cooperation on priority areas: Peace and Security, Democracy and Good Governance, Economic Development and Regional Integration, as well as Humanitarian and Social Issues within a Specific Reconstruction and Development Zone (SRDZ);

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