JA, DMIA call for ‘key’ KP reforms

New York--The plenary meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP) is scheduled to begin today in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a meeting two U.S. organizations say needs to result in progress toward a major overhaul of the struggling system.

Otherwise, “the industry must move forward to address concerns that are currently beyond the scope of the KP to embrace,” Jewelers of America and the Diamond Manufacturers and Importers Association of America (DMIA) said in a joint news release issued Friday.

“Since it was established, the Kimberley Process has been a vital tool in eliminating conflict diamonds,” JA CEO and President Matt Runci said. “That said, we have reached a crossroads where the KP must take steps to evolve as a system and make improvements that enable it to better address issues that fall outside its initial mandate. If these changes cannot happen within the KP, the industry will have to find its own solutions to maintain consumer confidence.”

The major stumbling block for the KP has been the ongoing situation in the Marange region of Zimbabwe, where alleged human rights violations were initially reported in 2008. Since 2009, the KP has been unable to reach a consensus on allowing exports from this area of Zimbabwe to resume.

It is an issue that has divided the process and undermined its credibility among participants, the industry and civil society. The coalition of civil society organizations that are involved in the KP are, in fact, boycotting the plenary over the Marange issue. In addition, the coalition recently had a major row with the industry when it called into question the World Diamond Council’s System of Warranties in this National Jeweler article.

JA and the DMIA note that the KP originally was designed to stop rebel movements from using money from the sale of diamonds, dubbed “blood” or conflict diamonds, to fund their activities against legitimate governments and was successful in doing so. But the Marange crisis brings to the forefront the question of how to deal with human rights violations in diamond-mining areas.

The two organizations said the KP must adopt reforms in order to address its issues. Specifically, they said the KP needs to establish a permanent secretariat and develop an improved voting system. Currently, a complete consensus is needed to move forward on any issues, a structure that many parties have called out as being ineffective.

In addition, the process needs to develop an arbitration and conciliation system for participant dispute resolution, establish more systematic internal control monitoring of participants and put in place a robust enforcement mechanism.

JA and the DMIA said the process also needs to commit to ongoing efforts to include human rights issues and the prohibition of any form of violence around diamond-mining areas--not just rebel-related violence--in its mandate.

The DMIA and JA continue to support the KP but point out that they have been proactive in addressing issues beyond the current scope of the process; since 2009, both have urged their members to avoid trading in Marange diamonds, though exports of rough have left the area since that time.