The 108th Inter-Parliamentary Conference,

Gravely concerned by the war in Iraq, a sovereign Member State of the United Nations, and its consequences for peace and stability in the region, and expressing profound sorrow for the victims amongst the civilian population, particularly women, children and the elderly,

Recalling the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the primary responsibility of the UN Security Council under the Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security,

Affirming its adherence to the principle of maintaining the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of Iraq,

Reaffirming the right of the people of Iraq to determine their own political future and to control their own natural resources,

Underlining the importance of respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, and religious, ethnic and cultural diversity in the territory of Iraq at all times,

Stressing the urgent need to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq, and welcoming UN Security Council resolution 1472 (2003) on the provision of humanitarian relief measures to the people of Iraq throughout the country on an equitable basis,

Recalling UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on the subject of women, peace and security,

Conscious of the role that the IPU must play in Iraq in promoting peace, democracy and cooperation through dialogue and by consolidating representative institutions,

1. Affirms the need to put an urgent end to the war in Iraq and to restore peace in the country;

2. Emphasises the importance of upholding international law, especially the Charter of the United Nations;

3. Reaffirms the fundamental importance of multilateralism and international cooperation in solving conflicts between States and, therefore, the war in Iraq, and calls on all States to cooperate fully with the United Nations and its Specialised Agencies;

4. Requests all parties to the armed conflict to abide strictly by their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Regulations especially those relating to the essential civilian needs of the people of Iraq;

5. Emphasises that the United Nations is the only organisation authorised under the Charter to use force, and therefore calls on it to assume a monitoring role with regard to the full withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and to facilitate the restoration of peace, law and order;

6. Calls on the international community to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq, including the provision of clean water, sanitation, food, shelter and emergency health care, and calls on the United Nations to continue playing its central role in the provision of such assistance;

7. Calls on the United Nations Security Council to lift the sanctions against Iraq as soon as possible in order to restore the necessary economic conditions for the survival of the population and the country's development;

8. Reaffirms that the United Nations must assume a leading role in the post-war period, including the reconstruction process, and stresses that Iraq's wealth should not be used, nor its natural resources depleted, to implement the reconstruction process;

9. Calls on all parties to ensure that women are fully integrated at all levels in the negotiation of peace agreements and that the resulting reconstruction programmes include a gender perspective reflecting the special needs and inputs of women and are based on equality and parity;

10. Emphasises the contribution that the United Nations can make in promoting the rule of law and building effective State institutions in Iraq;

11. Underscores the particular role the IPU can play in regard to democracy and representative institutions and thus contribute towards the rapid restoration of lasting peace in Iraq;

12. Stresses that it is for the Iraqi people to choose their own political institutions, and declares that the Inter-Parliamentary Union stands ready to put its expertise at the service of those choices;

13. Recalls that democracy is a mode of government to be applied according to modalities which reflect the diversity of experiences and cultural particularities without derogating from internationally recognised principles, norms and standards, including those relating to human rights, freedom, equality, transparency and responsibility, and in full respect for plurality of opinion and the common interest.

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After the resolution was adopted, the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic expressed a reservation on the text.

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Note: you can download a complete electronic version of the brochure "Results of the 108th Conference and related meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union" in PDF format (file size approximately 380K). This version requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free of charge.

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