Global Witness abandons Kimberley Process

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International NGO, Global Witness has announced its decision to leave the Kimberley Process, the diamond industry regulator, saying that the scheme’s “many flaws and loopholes” have not been fixed.

“Nearly nine years after the Kimberley Process was launched, the sad truth is that most consumers still cannot be sure where their diamonds come from, nor whether they are financing armed violence or abusive regimes” said Charmian Gooch, a founding director of Global Witness.

Global Witness is the latest in a series of groups to leave the Kimberley Process, after civil society organisations recorded a vote of no confidence in the scheme in July.

The majority of concerns relate to the Process’s certification of diamonds from Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields, believed to be associated with human rights abuses.

Meanwhile, a communiqué by the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition has welcomed an initiative by the Process at its Kinshasa Plenary at the beginning of November to study possible reforms to the diamond regulatory system.

“We recognise the Kimberley Process as a necessary, yet insufficient, means through which to regulate the international trade of rough diamonds, particularly those coming from high risk and conflict prone areas,” the coalition said.

It added however that it also intends to work with other, parallel initiatives until “it becomes clear that the KP is willing and able to address fundamental concerns about its operation”.