Brasilia Declaration

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INDIA-BRAZIL-SOUTH AFRICA DIALOGUE FORUM
BRASILIA DECLARATION
6 June 2003
1. The Foreign Ministers of Brazil, Celso Amorim, of South Africa, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, and of India, Yashwant Sinha, met in Brasilia on June 6, 2003, following ongoing consultations and after the respective Heads of State and/or Government of their countriesheld conversations during the G-8 meeting, in Evian.
2. This was a pioneer meeting of the three countries with vibrant democracies, from three regions of the developing world, active on a global scale, with the aim of examining themes on the international agenda and those of mutual interest. In the past few years, the importance and necessity of a process of dialogue amongst developing nationsand countries of the South has emerged.
3. The Foreign Ministers of Brazil, South Africa and India gave special consideration to the importance of respecting the rule of International Law, strengthening the United Nations and the Security Council and prioritising the exercise of diplomacy as a means to maintain international peace and security. They reaffirmed the need to combat threats tointernational peace and security in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and with the legal instruments to which Brazil, India and South Africa are parties.
4. They agreed on the need to reform the United Nations, in particular the Security Council. In this regard, they stressed the necessity of expanding the Security Council in both permanent and non-permanent member categories, withthe participation of developing countries in both categories. They agreed to combine efforts in order to enhance the effectiveness of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
5. They noted that new threats to security - such as terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, drugs and drug-related crimes, transnational organized crime, illegal weaponstraffic, threats to public health, in particular HIV/AIDS, natural disasters, and the maritime transit of toxic chemicals and radioactive waste - must be handled with effective, coordinated and solidary international cooperation, in the concerned organizations based on respect for the sovereignty of States and for International Law.
6. The Ministers highlighted the priority placed by the threegovernments on the promotion of social equity and inclusion, by implementing effective policies to fight hunger and poverty, to support family run farms, and to promote food security, health, social assistance, employment, education, human rights and environmental protection. They recalled that social empowerment makes better use of human potentials, contributing to economic development in asignificant manner. The Ministers recommended that the exchange of experiences in combating poverty, hunger and disease in the three countries would be of immense use to all of them. They recognized the importance of international effort to combat hunger. The three countries recognized and undertook to explore a trilateral food assistance program.
7. The Foreign Ministers stressed the importance, forequity reasons as well as for development goals, to address issues related to the elimination of all kinds of racial discrimination and to promote gender equality and mainstreaming a gender perspective in public policies.
8. The three Foreign Ministers expressed their satisfaction with the approval of the Convention on Tobacco Control, in the 56th Health World Assembly, and committedthemselves to make every effort to ratify the Convention on the shortest period of time. They also committed themselves to promote the main objective of the Convention – to protect present and future generations against the devastating consequences of the consumption of tobacco and against exposure to tobacco smoke.
9. The Foreign Ministers identified the trilateral cooperation among themselves as...