Is the Kimberley Process Trustworthy or a Fiasco?
Is the Kimberley Process Trustworthy or a Fiasco?
(The Kimberley Process is an international control system that was initiated to prevent diamonds from conflict zones, especially in African countries, from entering the country markets, to protect the legal diamond industry and to not allow countries not included in this process to import and export rough diamonds.)
People around the world are waking up to the reality of climate change and the urgent need to return to a more sustainable and ethical future. They are also rightfully asking questions about who or what is really to blame for this accelerated degradation. The answer is almost always corporate and sectoral greed. Those with power will always exploit the planet’s atmosphere, ecosystems, and ultimately the poorest for profit.
As a result, these influential people and organizations are unfortunately opposed to this shift towards ethics and sustainability, potentially jeopardizing their long-term margins. This is inevitable, and therefore, when faced with increasing pressure from the public, those responsible will try to hide their activities and mislead the public rather than truly change for the better. There is no better example of this than the diamond mining industry. It has been repeatedly proven by many journalists and NGOs that it causes unprecedented human and ecological destruction. The diamonds mined with slave labor have earned the infamous nickname “Blood Diamonds” for diamonds mined without clean blood. This is because the vast majority of diamonds are in conflict zones where the rule of law is scarce and are almost always controlled by armed militias or paramilitaries that use slave labor to mine the diamonds.
These 'blood diamonds' then enter the global market because, despite the concern for responsibility and ethics by consumers, the public, organizations and governments, morally bankrupt corporations, tycoons and warlords are unwilling to comply with this pressure because the blood diamond business is so profitable.
What is the Kimberly Process?
In order to combat the negative connotations of “Blood Diamonds” and to make them appear environmentally friendly to “Conflict-Free-Clean Diamonds” without addressing any of the underlying issues, the mined diamond industry itself has created the “Kimberly Process”. They proudly claim that the Kimberly Process has prevented the spread of conflict diamonds worldwide. They are nothing more than an association of suppliers of rough or newly mined diamonds who have come together to protect the “legitimate trade” in rough diamonds! However, like many previous efforts by the mined diamond industry, the ‘Kimberly Process’ is a massive advertising campaign to perpetuate the market for ‘Blood Diamonds’ by portraying them as sustainable and ethically sourced to responsible consumers.
To understand why the ‘Kimberley Process’ is so dangerous and harmful, we must start with the organization itself. Taken directly from their website: “The Kimberly Process (KPM) is not, strictly speaking, an international organization: it has no permanent offices or permanent staff. It is based on contributions from its participants – the principle of “burden sharing” – supported by industry and civil society observers. Since the KPM is implemented through the national legislation of its participants, it cannot be considered an international agreement from a legal perspective.” Simply put, it is a cushy organization with no offices or full-time staff. They are not audited by any certification board, regulatory government, NGO or even independent auditor, and are therefore accountable to no one but themselves.