Building upon an emerging international consensus to address armed violence as a humanitarian and development imperative, the Oslo conference will seek to generate international momentum to ensure that commitments to armed violence reduction and prevention are included in the High Level Plenary Meeting on the MDGs, and reflected in subsequent MDG and developmental strategies through to 2015.

The conference will also seek to build upon the commitments made in the Geneva Declaration and the Secretary-General’s report on armed violence and development to achieve measurable reductions in armed violence, and to agree on a series of practical steps to do so, including:  monitoring armed violence and developing goals, targets and indicators for measurable reductions; implementing armed violence reduction programmes; assisting victims of armed violence to fully realize their rights; and working to implement these commitments through development planning, co-operation and assistance.

The Oslo Conference meeting in Geneva on 12 May will seek the endorsement of ‘the Oslo Commitments on Armed Violence’– a set of concrete steps towards measurable reductions in armed violence, including support for the inclusion of armed violence in the MDG Review Summit.