DOCUMENT No. 4 

SAARC Declaration January 6, 2002 

Following is the text of the Declaration issued at the end of the 11th SAARC Summit held at Bhutan, Nepal.

The Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Her Excellency Begum Khaleda Zia; the Prime Minister of the Royal Government of Bhutan, His Excellency Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk; the Prime Minister of the Republic of India, His Excellency Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee; the President of the Republic of Maldives, His Excellency Mr. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom; the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Nepal, Right Honourable Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba; the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, His Excellency General Pervez Musharraf; and the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Her Excellency Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga met at the Eleventh Summit meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Kathmandu, Nepal from 4 to 6 January 2002.

Regional Cooperation

                The Heads of State or Government reaffirmed their commitment to regional cooperation through SAARC and underscored the importance of annual Summit meetings in charting common strategies for the realisation of the objectives and principles set out in the Charter of the Association. Meeting for the first time at the dawn of the new millennium, they solemnly renewed their pledge to strengthen the Association and make it more cohesive, result oriented, and forward looking, by adopting clearly defined programmes and effective implementation strategies in line with popular expectations. To give effect to the shared aspirations for a more prosperous South Asia, the leaders agreed to the vision of a phased and planned process eventually leading to a South Asian Economic Union.

                The Heads of State or Government stressed that equitable sharing of the benefits of regional cooperation is essential to achieve and maintain a minimum acceptable level of economic and social development in each Member State. To this end, they expressed their commitment to a speedier process of harmonising the policies and practices and imbibing regional goals and strategies in their national development programmes.

                The Heads of State or Government expressed their firm determination to fully benefit from the wealth of traditional wisdom, creativity and enterprise in the region. They also pledged to enhance transparency and accountability in governance and to encourage effective participation of the peoples and civil societies in the formulation as well as implementation of the programmes of cooperation.

                Reiterating their resolve to promote the regional identity and to strengthen cooperation at the international level, the Heads of State or Government also emphasised the need to evolve common positions on issues of shared interests at the international fora.

Cooperation in the Economic Sector

                The Heads of State or Government agreed to accelerate cooperation in the core areas of trade, finance and investment to realise the goal of an integrated South Asian economy in a step-by-step manner. They expressed their determination to make the full use of regional synergy to maximise the benefits of globalisation and liberalisation and to minimise their negative impacts on the region. While recognising that trade and economic expansion is closely inter-linked, the leaders made a commitment to widen and deepen the scope of regional networks of activities in trade and financial matters.

                The Heads of State or Government noted with satisfaction the outcomes of the successive meetings of the SAARC Commerce Ministers aimed at enlarging the scope of cooperation in the core areas. They recognised the importance of achieving a free trade area and reaffirmed that the treaty regime for creating a free trade area must incorporate, inter alia, binding timeframes for freeing trade, measures to facilitate trade and provisions to ensure an equitable distribution of benefits of trade to all states, especially for small and least developed countries, including mechanisms for compensation of revenue loss.

                Recognising the need to move quickly towards a South Asian Free Trade Area, the Heads of State or Government directed the Council of Ministers to finalize the text of the Draft Treaty Framework by the end of 2002. They also directed that in moving towards the goal of SAFTA, the Member States expedite action to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers and structural impediments to free trade. They also instructed to conclude the meeting of the Inter Governmental Group on trade Liberalization for the 4th Round of Trade Negotiations under SAPTA as early as possible as per the decision of the 10^th SAARC Summit in Colombo.

                The Heads of State or Government renewed their commitment to encourage the participation of the private sector and assured their full support for their socially responsible economic initiatives. While welcoming the practice of holding trade fairs in cooperation with the private sector at the regional level, they appreciated the efforts of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry to promote regional economic cooperation in the spirit of public and private sector partnership.

                The Heads of State or Government also decided to instruct the Secretary General to facilitate an early finalisation of a regionally agreed investment framework to meet investment needs of the SAARC Member States.

                The Heads of State or Government recognised the immense tourism potential of South Asia and underlined the need to take measures to promote South Asia as a common tourist destination through joint efforts in areas such as upgrading of infrastructure, air linkages, simplification and harmonisation of administrative procedures and training and joint marketing.

Poverty Alleviation

                The Heads of State or Government acknowledged that investment in poverty alleviation programmes contributes to social stability, economic progress and overall prosperity.

                They were of the view that widespread and debilitating poverty continued to be the most formidable developmental challenge for the region. Conscious of the magnitude of poverty in the region, and recalling also the decision of the UN Millennium Summit 2000 to reduce the world poverty in half by 2015, and also recalling the commitments made at the five year review of the World Summit for Social Development to reduce poverty with enhanced social mobilisation, the Heads of State or Government made a review of the SAARC activities aimed at poverty alleviation and decided to reinvigorate them in the context of the regional and global commitments to poverty reduction.

                The Heads of State or Government expressed their firm resolve to combat the problem of poverty with a new sense of urgency by actively promoting the synergetic partnership among national governments, international agencies, the private sector, and the civil society. They reaffirmed their pledge to undertake effective and sustained poverty alleviation programmes through pro-poor growth strategy and social as well as other policy interventions with specific sectoral targets. The leaders also agreed to take immediate steps for an effective implementation of the programmes for social mobilisation and decentralisation, and for strengthening institution building and support mechanisms to ensure participation of the poor, both as stake-holder and beneficiary, in governance and development process.

                The Heads of State or Government decided to undertake sustained measures to extend rural micro-credit programmes with focus on women and the disadvantaged sections of the society. They also stressed the need for widening the opportunities for gainful employment. While highlighting the importance of promoting agriculture, indigenous skills and small scale and cottage industries to address the incidence of rural poverty, they decided to enhance cooperation in agricultural research, extension and adoption. They specifically instructed that the Technical Committees should identify programmes and activities that impact on poverty alleviation. They urged the need to create gainful employment and promote cooperation in vocational training.

                The Heads of State or Government emphasised the need to promote sharing of the best practices and experiences among the Member States and to this end, instructed the Secretary General to disseminate such information to the Member States on a regular basis. They directed the Council of Ministers to review on a continuous basis the regional poverty profile to be prepared by the Secretary General with the assistance of the related UN agencies, nodal agencies and independent research institutions specialised in the field.

                In order to ensure social stability and to protect the vulnerable sections of population from the adverse impacts of globalisation and liberalization, the Heads of State or Government stressed the need to enhance cooperation to create and maintain appropriate safety nets.

                The Heads of State or Government agreed that a special session on poverty alleviation at the ministerial level should undertake a comprehensive review and evaluation of the status of implementation of poverty eradication policies and programmes carried out so far, and to recommend further concrete measures to enhance effective cooperation at the regional level to the 12^th SAARC Summit. They also directed the Council of Ministers to take necessary steps to fully activate the existing three-tier mechanism for poverty alleviation.

                The Leaders directed the Council of Ministers to coordinate efforts to integrate poverty alleviation programs into the development strategies of Member States. In this context, they agreed to reconstitute the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation, with Nepal as its Convener and Bangladesh as Co-convener, for reviewing the progress made in cooperation on poverty alleviation and for suggesting appropriate and effective measures. They instructed the Chairman of the Council of Ministers to seek two nominations from each Member State by end of January 2002 to enable to hold its first meeting before the proposed Ministerial Meeting on Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan in April 2002.

                Expressing concern at the region's special vulnerability in the slowdown in world economy and its negative impact on the poor and the marginalized, the Heads of State or Government called for a supportive international environment and enhanced level of assistance by international community for poverty alleviation programs in South Asia.

Cooperation in the Social and Cultural Sector

                The Heads of State or Government reiterated the need for an early finalisation of the SAARC Social Charter and instructed the Inter Governmental Expert Group to expedite their work on the basis of the draft submitted by the Secretary General as a working paper for its consideration, complete the draft framework of the Charter as early as possible and present it for consideration at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers. While drawing up the charter, they also directed the Council of Ministers to include the important areas of poverty eradication, population stabilization, the empowerment of women, youth mobilization, human resources development, the promotion of health and nutrition and the protection of children.

                The Leaders recognized the debilitating and widespread impact of the HIV/AIDS, TB and other communicable deadly diseases on the population of South Asia and stressed the need for evolving a regional strategy to combat these diseases. The strategy should include, inter alia, culturally appropriate preventive measures, an affordable treatment regime and should specially target the vulnerable groups. In this regard, they felt that SAARC should collaborate with the international organizations and civil society on those diseases. They also emphasized that the SAARC Tuberculosis Centre in Kathmandu should play a coordinating role in the related areas.

                In accordance with the Colombo Declaration, the Heads of State or Government decided to mandate to Ministers of Cultural Affairs Meeting in Sri Lanka to finalise the details relating to the establishment as well as financing of the SAARC cultural centre and submit its report to the next session of the council of Ministers.

Women and Children

            The Heads of State or Government welcomed the signing of the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating the Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution and expressed their collective resolve to treat trafficking in women and children for the commercial sexual exploitation as a criminal offence of a serious nature. They also welcomed the signing of the SAARC Convention on Regional Arrangements for the Promotion of Child Welfare in South Asia and observed that the convention reflected their commitment to place the child first in the national and regional programs of the Member States. They instructed the Secretary General, in consultation with Member States and other specialised agencies, to present a report on measures for the effective implementation of the conventions to the next meeting of the Council of Ministers.

                The Heads of State or Government agreed to establish, on the basis of recommendations of the Regional Task force responsible for the implementation of the provisions of the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, a voluntary fund with contributions from Member States, individuals, and donor countries and agencies for the rehabilitation and reintegration of the victims of trafficking.

                The Leaders recognized the need to form an autonomous advocacy group of prominent women personalities from the Member States with a view to making recommendations to the SAARC bodies on a broad spectrum of gender related issues. They directed the council of Ministers to take necessary steps to prepare and present for consideration at their next meeting the Terms of Reference for the purpose.

                The Heads of State or Government recognized the need to actively pursue and promote social development through empowerment of women and to achieve their full participation in decision making at all levels. They reaffirmed their commitment to uplift the social status of the people, women and children in particular, in the region and expressed their common resolve to accord the highest priority to promoting social development through specific and targeted programs. The leaders directed the Council of Ministers to take necessary measures to ensure the enjoyment by women and girl child of their inherent potentials. They also directed the Council of Ministers to constitute a Task Force to review the status of implementation of past decisions related to the social sector and to suggest guidelines for their effective implementation in the future.

                The leaders directed the Council of Ministers to take concrete steps to give priority to investing in children as an effective means for poverty reduction in the long run reaffirming their commitment to the Colombo Plan of Action and the Rawalpindi Declaration and recalling the declaration of 2001 to 2010 as the SAARC Decade of the Rights of the Child, the Heads of State or Government noted with appreciation the South Asia High-level Meeting on Children held in Kathmandu in May 2001. They reaffirmed their conviction that the children in South Asia deserve urgent and focused attention to enhance the long term and overall progress of the countries of the region.

                The Heads of State or Government agreed to mobilize the necessary resources and intensify broad based actions to achieve a set of priority goals related to improving the status of children, such as polio eradication by 2005, protection of children from mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, and quality basic education to the children within a time-bound period.

Education

                The Heads of State or Government instructed the concerned Ministers of the Governments to devise appropriate strategies for raising the quality of education through the exchange of information among the universities in the region. While emphasizing the importance of mutual recognition of the educational institutions, they agreed to give the necessary impetus to realize the goal of a common regional educational standard through uniform methods of instruction and teaching aids. They were unanimous in recognizing the benefit of introducing SAARC in the national curricula at appropriate levels of study in order to enhance the awareness about Association's goals and objectives.

                The Heads of State or Government recognized that access to quality education was an important element for the empowerment of all segments of society, and undertook to develop or strengthen national strategies and action plans to ensure that all children particularly the girl child have access to quality primary education by 2015. And to improve levels of adult literacy by 50 per cent by eliminating gender disparities in access to education as envisaged in the Dakar Framework for Action on Education for All adopted by the World Education Forum held at Dakar in April 2000.

International Political and Economic Environment

                The Heads of State or Government reiterated their firm support for the principles and purposes of the United Nations in order to create a just, balanced and equitable world order. They reaffirmed their commitment to continue working with the NAM and other like-minded countries for the reform and democratisation of the United Nations System with a view to making it an effective and more democratic institution for international peace, security, progress and cooperation.

                The Heads of State or Government were of the view that stability, peace and security in South Asia should be promoted together with efforts to improve the global security environment. They underscored their commitment to general and complete disarmament including nuclear disarmament on a universal basis, under effective international control.

                They agreed that global non-proliferation goals could not be international control. They agreed that global non-proliferation goals could not be achieved in the absence of progress towards nuclear disarmament and in this context called upon all nuclear weapon states, whether party or non-party to the NPT, to engage constructively through a transparent and credible process of negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament and Development.n

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