Kimberly founding member quits process

Enviromine

Publishing Date: 03 Jun 2009 2:14pm GMT
Author: Mining, People and the Environment

Corporate Social Responsibility CSR Legal and Legislation

Ian Smillie, one of the driving forces of NGO Partnership Africa-Canada and the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme has quit his position, saying he can no longer contribute to the pretence that failure is success.

Mr Smillie said the process had failed in its task to prevent diamond smuggling hand human rights abuses, industry expert Chaim Even-Zohar wrote in the Diamond Intelligence Brief this week.

“We have effectively condoned diamond smuggling - the very thing we were established to prevent,” Mr Smillie said. “Perhaps worse, we refuse to deal with human rights abuse in alluvial diamond mining, surely a fundamental issue for a body that aims to stop "blood" diamonds.”

“What made Ian so special is that everything he does is low key, done quietly, in a modest understated way, but driven by a deep moral conviction,” Mr Even-Zohar said of Mr Smillie.

Mr Even-Zohar said the Kimberly process now needs to start a process of renewing the framework, or that perhaps it should be discontinued entirely.

“Diamond countries may need to go back to their governments and plead for discontinuation of the scheme,” he said.