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General Assembly backs Kimberley Process to prevent diamonds from funding conflictThe General Assembly today passed a resolution backing the Kimberley
Process, a global initiative involving governments, the international
diamond industry and civil society aimed at preventing so-called “conflict
diamonds” from funding warfare and civil unrest.
The resolution was adopted after the 192 Member States were briefed by
President Festus Gontebanye Mogae of Botswana, which holds this year’s Chair
of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme that imposes extensive
requirements on participants to certify that shipments of rough diamonds are
free from conflict diamonds.
The resolution also recognized that the Kimberley Process Certification
Scheme can help to ensure that Security Council’s resolutions containing
sanctions on the trade in conflict diamonds are carried out, while helping to
prevent future conflicts.
The Assembly resolution also supported a decision taken by a meeting of the
Kimberley Process earlier this month calling for “stronger internal control”
standards for participants in the process –– who now number 47 representing
71 countries –– as well as for clearer guidance on implementing effective
controls from the mining to the export of diamonds.
President Mogae’s briefing to the Assembly also included a 2006 progress report
on the Kimberly Process, which concluded that it was working well although there
were still some problems, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire and South America.
“Some of Côte d’Ivoire’s neighbours are not Kimberley Process
Participants and, therefore, the Kimberley Process has relatively limited
influence over such countries. The Kimberley Process views the problem of
leakage diamonds from Côte d’Ivoire into the legitimate trade as one that may
require a regional approach to resolve,” the report stated.
“The other area where there are challenges that require a regional approach
is in South America, and specifically concerning Brazil, Guyana and
Venezuela,” it said, adding that “all countries” in both regions were
encouraged to join the Process as recommended by the Security Council.
Speaking
to reporters after briefing the Assembly, President Mogae acknowledged there was
still work to do with the Kimberley Process but highlighted also its successes.
“Before the Certification Scheme it was reported that conflict diamonds
were possibly about 4 per cent of global production. Now with Certification we
have admitted in my report that …we are glad to say that they are now less
than 1 per cent,” he said.
Begun in 2000 by southern African diamond-producing countries, the Kimberley
Process led to the adoption in November 2002 in Interlaken, Switzerland, of the
international Certification Scheme for rough diamonds, based primarily on
national certification schemes and on internationally-agreed minimum standards. see also diamond ethics |
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“The General Assembly, recognizing that the trade in conflict diamonds
continues to be a matter of serious international concern, which can be directly
linked to the fuelling of armed conflict… reaffirms its strong and continuing
support for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and the Kimberley Process
as a whole,” it stated.
