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Report: KP Certification Scheme failing

October 15, 2009

Ottawa, Canada--The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), the process intended to keep blood diamonds out of the trade, is failing, states Partnership Africa Canada's (PAC) annual report.

The report, "Diamonds and Human Security Annual Review," states that the failure of the KPCS is not caused by warlords, but by the governments at the center of the KPCS' administration that refuse to crack down on smuggling, human right abuses and money laundering.

The review includes detailed investigative reports on more than a dozen diamond-producing countries, and points out that a KPCS collapse would be disastrous for an industry that benefits so many countries and for the millions of people in poor countries who depend both directly and indirectly on diamonds.

"A criminalized diamond economy would re-emerge, and conflict diamonds could soon follow," PAC Executive Director Bernard Taylor said in a press release.

The report states that accountability is the main problem with the KPCS, noting that:
  • There is no central authority as the KP "chair" rotates from country to country annually and has virtually no responsibility beyond a convening function.
  • Problems are shifted from one "working group" to another.
  • Debates on important issues go on for years.
  • The "consensus" in the KP means that everyone must agree and that a single dissenting government can block movement on an issue.
In addition, the report states that weak monitoring means cases of flagrant non-compliance are ignored until they become media scandals, such as the smuggling of Ivoirian and Venezuelan conflict diamonds through neighboring countries.

Other problems cited in the report include inconsistencies in trade and production statistics from Lebanon, Guinea and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), and the smuggling, mismanagement and government massacres of more than 200 diamond diggers in Zimbabwe.

PAC and other non-governmental organizations from Africa, Europe and the United States plan to call for major overhauls to the KPCS at its scheduled November meeting in Namibia.

"The KPCS is too important to fail," said PAC's Susanne Emond, "and it is too important to too many countries, companies and people to be a sham. It does not need to be redesigned; its provisions need to be enforced."

To download a copy of the entire report, click here.
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