Kimberley Process - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is the process designed to certify the origin of rough diamond

Rough Diamond

Rough diamond refers to a diamond which has not yet been cut, but may also refer to:* Rough Diamond , a drama series by BBC Northern Ireland* Rough Diamond , a British progressive rock band...

s from sources which are free of conflict funded by diamond production.

KPCS was introduced by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/56 following recommendations in the Fowler Report

Fowler Report

The Fowler Report, released on March 14, 2000, is a United Nations report detailing how various companies, African and European governments, including that of Angola and the political wing of UNITA, violated the Lusaka Protocol as well as UN-imposed sanctions...

. The process was established in 2003 to prevent diamond sales from financing rebellious movements. The certification scheme

Scheme

Scheme may refer to:* Scheme , a minimalist, multi-paradigm dialect of Lisp* Scheme , a concept in algebraic geometry* Scheme , a figure of speech that changes a sentence's structure-See also:...

aims at preventing "blood diamonds" from entering the mainstream rough diamond

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...

market. It was set up to assure consumers that by purchasing diamonds they were not financing war and human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

abuses.

History

The United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

imposed sanctions against UNITA

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...

in 1998 through United Nations Security Council Resolution 1173

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1173

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1173, adopted unanimously on June 12, 1998, after reaffirming Resolution 696 and all subsequent resolutions on Angola, particularly Resolution 1127 , the Council announced its intention to impose further sanctions against UNITA for non-compliance, unless...

, however investigators led by Robert Fowler

Robert Fowler (diplomat)

Robert R. Fowler is a Canadian diplomat and the special envoy of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Niger since mid-2008, to find solution to the conflict in Agadez region....

presented the Fowler Report

Fowler Report

to the UN in March 2000, which detailed how the movement was able to continue financing its war efforts through the sale of diamonds on the international market. The UN wished to clamp down on this sanctions-breaking trade, but had limited powers of enforcement; the Fowler report therefore set out to name the countries, companies and individuals involved. This led to a meeting of Southern African diamond-producing states in Kimberley, Northern Cape

Kimberley, Northern Cape

Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...

in May 2000. A culminating ministerial meeting followed during September in Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

, from which the KPCS originated.

In December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly

United Nations General Assembly

For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...

adopted Resolution A/RES/55/56, supporting the creation of an international certification scheme for rough diamonds, and this was followed by support from the United Nations Security Council

United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...

in its Resolution 1459

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1459

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1459, adopted unanimously on January 28, 2003, after recalling resolutions 1173 , 1295 , 1306 , 1343 , 1385 and 1408 concerning the illicit trade in diamonds, the Council expressed support for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme .In the preamble...

passed in January 2003. Every year since, the General Assembly has renewed its support for the KP - most recently in December 2009.

In order for a country to be a participant, it must ensure that any diamond originating from the country does not finance a rebel group or other entity seeking to overthrow a UN-recognized government, that every diamond export be accompanied by a Kimberley Process certificate and that no diamond is imported from, or exported to, a non-member of the scheme. This three-step plan is a simple description of the steps taken to ensure a chain of countries that deal exclusively with non-conflict diamonds. By restricting diamond revenues to government-approved sources, the Kimberley Process is neutral towards different governments.

Requirements

Each shipment of rough diamonds crossing an international border should be:

Transported in a tamper-resistant container.
Accompanied by a government-validated Kimberley Process Certificate.
- Each certificate must be resistant to forgery, uniquely numbered and describe the shipment's contents.
- The shipments are only supposed to be exported to other KPCS participant countries.

Failure to comply with these procedures may lead to the removal of the non-complying member country. If any concerns arise regarding a country's adherence to the scheme, they must be investigated and dealt with by the World Trade Organization

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

System of warranties

The World Diamond Council

World Diamond Council

The World Diamond Council is an organization consisting of representatives from diamond manufacturing and diamond trading companies...

created a System of Warranties for diamonds that has been endorsed by all KPCS participants. Under this system, all buyers and sellers of both rough and polished diamonds must make the following affirmative statement on all invoices:

“The diamonds herein invoiced have been purchased from legitimate sources not involved in funding conflict and in compliance with United Nations resolutions. The seller hereby guarantees that these diamonds are conflict free, based on personal knowledge and/or written guarantees provided by the supplier of these diamonds.”

It is considered a violation of the KPCS to issue a warranty declaration on a sales invoice unless it can be corroborated by warranty invoices received for purchases. Each company trading in diamonds must also keep records of the warranty invoices received and the warranty invoices issued when buying or selling diamonds. This flow of warranties in and out must be audited and reconciled on an annual basis by the company’s auditors.

In addition, the diamond industry organizations and their members have adopted the following principles of self-regulation:

to trade only with companies that include warranty declarations on their invoices;
to not buy diamonds from suspect sources or unknown suppliers, or which originate in countries that have not implemented the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme;
to not buy diamonds from any sources that, after a legally binding due process system, have been found to have violated government regulations restricting the trade in conflict diamonds;
to not buy diamonds in or from any region that is subject to an advisory by a governmental authority indicating that conflict diamonds are emanating from or available for sale in such region, unless diamonds have been exported from such region in compliance with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme;
to not knowingly buy or sell or assist others to buy or sell conflict diamonds;
to ensure that all company employees that buy or sell diamonds within the diamond trade are well informed regarding trade resolutions and government regulations restricting the trade in conflict diamonds.

Failure to abide by these principles exposes the member to expulsion from industry organizations.

Working Procedure

Supervision of the KPCS is done by the Chair, elected on an annual basis at a plenary meeting. A Working Group on Monitoring, monitors each participant to ensure that it is implementing the scheme correctly. The Working Group reports to the Chair. Other working groups include the Technical Working Group (or Working Group of Diamond Experts) which reports on difficulties in implementation and proposed solutions, and the Statistics Working Group, which reports diamond trading data. The Participation Committee reports to the Chair on its recommendations on proposed members hoping to join the KPCS. The Selection Committee reports on its recommendations on who should be the next Vice-Chair. After a year of being Vice-Chair, the successful candidate becomes the Chair.

While the Process has been broadly welcomed by groups aiming to improve human rights in countries previously affected by conflict diamonds, such as Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

, some say it does not go far enough. For instance, Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

says "[We] welcome the Kimberley Process as an important step to dealing with the problem of conflict diamonds. But until the diamond trade is subject to mandatory, impartial monitoring, there is still no effective guarantee that all conflict diamonds will be identified and removed from the market." Canadian aid group One Sky

One Sky

One Sky is a jazz album composed by Ryan Cohan, performed by the RC Sextet and released 16 October 2007 on Motéma Music.The album's name comes from the concept that all of humanity lives under one sky and that, therefore, man cannot operate as a solitary creature...

(funded in part by the Canadian government) concurs with Amnesty's view saying "If effectively implemented, the Kimberley Process will ensure that diamonds cannot be used to finance war and atrocities... However, without a system of expert, independent and periodic reviews of all countries, the overall process remains open to abuse." The German group Medico International started together with other European NGO

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

s the campaign Fatal Transactions on the financing of African conflicts through diamonds.

Another form of criticism by the African Diamond Council (ADC) is whether the Kimberley process is realistically enforceable. There are many factors that can jeopardize the "Officialdom of certificates and paperwork" from lack of enforcement on the ground to the secrecy in the diamond trading centers such as Antwerp.

Working Groups

KPCS has established a number of working groups for carrying out its programs. These are: Working Group of Diamond Experts (WGDE), Working Group on Monitoring (WGM), Working Group on Statistics (WGS), Working Group of Artisanal Alluvial Producers (WGAAP). There is also a Coordinator for Technical Assistance.

Current Membership

As of December 2009, there were 49 participants in the KPCS representing 75 countries, with the European Community counting as a single participant. The participants include all major rough diamond producing, exporting and importing countries. The new entrants are Turkey and Liberia, in addition to Republic of the Congo, which has been re-admitted in 2007. Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Mali, Mexico and Tunisia attended the Brussels Plenary 2007 and affirmed their intention to join the Kimberley Process. Also, Bahrain, Cape Verde, Gabon, Swaziland and Zambia have expressed their interest in future participation.

Waiver

The World Trade Organization

World Trade Organization

(WTO) in December 2006 approved a waiver for the KPCS while recognizing the importance and effectiveness of the KPCS.

Chairs

The current chair of KPCS is the nation that held the position of vice chair the previous year.

2003: South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

; vice chair Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

2004: Canada

Canada

; vice chair Russian Federation

2005: Russian Federation; vice chair Botswana

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

2006: Botswana

Botswana

; vice chair European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

2007: European Commission

European Commission

; vice chair India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

2008: India

India

; vice chair Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

2009: Namibia

Namibia

; vice chair Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

2010: Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Mr. Boaz Hirsch; vice chair DRC

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

2011: DRC

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

, Mr. Mathieu Yamba; (vice chair to be announced: as of now, there is no consensus either on Zimbabwe nor on the United States to take the chair in 2012)

The DRC's position as the 2011 KPCS Chair is notable, in that it was a known source of conflict diamonds and other minerals in recent years.

Statistics

KPCS emphasizes collecting and publishing data relating to actual mining and international trade in diamonds. Member countries are required to officially submit statistics that can be verified through audit. Also, all member countries are required to produce and submit an Annual Report on the trade in diamonds. According to the Working Group on Statistics (WGS) of KPCS, in 2006, the KPCS monitored $35.7 billion in rough diamond exports representing more than 480 million carats. The number of Certificates issued by KPCS members was 55,000.

Peer Review

In 2003 KPCS initiated a process of peer review of implementation of KPCS in different countries. Nominated by the governments, experts form a team to visit KPCS countries and inspect implementation of the scheme. According to the Working Group on Monitoring (WGM) of KPCS the Kimberley Process has completed the first round of peer review visits in 2007 with more than 50 on the ground inspection visits conducted to Participants and applicants since 2003.

Annual Report

Annual Report by all KPCS members is a component of Peer Review mechanism established by KPCS. In the United States, for example, all companies that buy, sell, and ship rough diamonds must submit an annual report via email to the State Department

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

,deadline April 1. The report must include the company's contact information and a detailed breakdown of the total carat weight and value in U.S. dollars of rough diamonds imported, exported, and stockpiled (still in inventory) for the previous calendar year. These are also sorted by HTS

Harmonized Tariff Schedule for the United States

The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States is the primary resource for determining tariff classifications for goods imported into the United States . This two volume U.S...

codes for unsorted (gem and industrial) rough diamonds, sorted rough industrial diamonds, and sorted rough gem diamonds—the latter of which is most likely to be polished into finished stones and jewelry for retail sale, while industrial diamonds are most likely to be used in cutting and drilling tools. Failure to submit this annual report in a timely fashion could result in a fine up to $10,000. If found to be in willful violation, the convicted offender could be fined up to $50,000 and sentenced to jail time up to ten years.

Expulsion

In 2004, Republic of the Congo

Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...

was removed from the scheme because it was found unable to prove the origin of its gems, most of which were believed to have come from the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

. For countries economically dependent on diamond exports, this can be a substantial punishment, as it disallows trade with much of the rest of the world. Republic of the Congo's membership in the KPCS was reinstated in the Plenary of 2007.

In 2005, trade with diamonds from Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...

was prohibited. Ivorian diamonds and cocoa are considered to be conflict resources.

In 2008, Venezuela voluntarily removed itself from the KPCS, after it had been in non-compliance for several years. The nation ignored several correspondences from Kimberley working groups, finally responding to an ambassador from Angola in 2007. Venezuela invited Kimberley officials to visit the nation, but this required authorization, and the deadline came and went without further correspondence. Finally Venezuela agreed it would remove itself from the KPCS and work toward strengthening its infrastructure.

The Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, and Venezuela are still considered Kimberley Process members, but not Kimberley Process participants. As explained in the FAQ

FAQ

Frequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...

section of the Kimberley Process website, "Participants in the Kimberley Process (KP) are states or regional economic integration organisations (currently the European Community) that have met the minimum requirements of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) and are, therefore, eligible to trade in rough diamonds with one another. The KPCS prohibits participants from trading with non-participants. Participants are often referred to as ‘members’." Therefore, while the aforementioned countries still retain membership in the KPCS, they do not fulfill the requirements for participation, and thus cannot be called "participants."

Brussels Plenary 2007

Kimberley Process Plenary of 2007 (the 5th Plenary) was held in Brussels 5–8 November 2007, under the chair of the European Commission. 73 participants, including governments, NGOs and private business representing 47 countries participated, including the United Nations, the African Diamond Council (ADC) & ADPA, the governments of Mali, Egypt, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), World Diamond Council and Partnership Africa Canada. India was elected chair for 2008. Brussels Plenary emphasized adding a development dimension to KPCS so that the mining and trade in diamond in low income countries could be utilized for development of the country and reduction of poverty of its people. More than 300 delegates participated in the plenary. Important decisions include re-admission of the Republic of Congo and a program for improving regional cooperation on rough diamonds from Côte d'Ivoire. It endorsed the Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

Declaration on internal controls of KPCS participants with rough diamond trading and manufacturing.

Global Witness

Global Witness is an international NGO established in 1993 that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide. The organisation has offices in London and Washington, D.C.. Global Witness states that it does not have...

is a London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

-based NGO, a key member of the KPCS and was one of the first organizations to bring the issue of 'conflict diamonds' to international attention. They state that a report they wrote, "A Rough Trade," was partial inspiration for the film Blood Diamond

Blood Diamond (film)

Blood Diamond is a 2006 political thriller film co-produced and directed by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou...

Criticism

In June 2009, Ian Smillie of Canadian-based NGO, Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), and one of the founder members of the Kimberley Process resigned his position accusing the regulator of failing to regulate and saying he could no longer contribute to the "pretense that failure is success". At the same time, another founder member of the process, UK-based NGO Global Witness

Global Witness

said, "Despite having all tools in place, the Scheme was failing effectively to address issues of non-compliance, smuggling, money laundering and human rights abuses in the world's... diamond fields". The Scheme came under further criticism from Global Witness

Global Witness

and Partnership Africa Canada in June 2010 after the Kimberley Monitor appointed to review diamond mining conditions in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

recommended that the country be allowed to sell diamonds as conflict-free from its contested Marange

Marange diamond fields

The Marange diamond fields are an area of widespread small-scale diamond production in Chiadzwa, Mutare West, Zimbabwe. 'The hugely prolific Chiadzwa fields are regarded as the world's biggest diamond find in more than a century'...

diamond fields in Chiadzwa

Chiadzwa

Chiadzwa is a ward in Mutare District and Mutare West constituency in Zimbabwe and home to the Marange diamond fields....

. For the first time the two NGOs jointly called for the classification of conflict diamonds to be redefined.

In August 2010, another key draftsman of the KP and Africa’s highest-ranking diamond official, African Diamond Council (ADC) and ADPA

African Diamond Producers Association

African Diamond Producers Association is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to strengthen the level of influence African diamond-producing countries have on the world diamond market....

chairman Dr. André A. Jackson

André A. Jackson

André Action Diakité Jackson , , more commonly known by his African clan name "M’Zée Fula-Ngenge" , is a diamond industrialist and head of JFPI Corporation, Africa's largest holding company....

demoralized KP supporters after persuading African diamond producing nations to renounce their support for scheme. Jackson brazenly blasted the KP for its ongoing ineffectiveness, stating that “the System has failed to thwart trading of diamonds mined as a result of human suffering.”

Ahead of this denunciation, the ADC unleashed a distressing TV infomercial that exposed internal problems at the front end of the African diamond industry. The broadcast was not only a huge boost for the ADC, it proved to be an enormous setback for the Kimberley Process and ultimately led to a cessation of DeBeers’s ascendancy on the African continent.

In December 2010 Time Magazine published a piece discussing the newly founded rough diamond trade in Zimbabwe. The article questioned the legitimacy of the Kimberley Process, stating that it was unable to prevent Zimbabwean conflict diamonds from entering the market.

External links

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