What is the Kimberley Process for Diamonds?

While Diamonds can be regarded as one of the most beautiful and precious gemstones in the world, the history is not that beautiful. There are so many things that happened after diamonds came into existence. Think blood diamonds and the various deals that have to be done. This has made controlling the situations which come from the presence of diamonds very difficult. Therefore, the diamond industry tried to put some steps in place to make sure that this situation does not get out of hand. One of them would include the Kimberley process.

The Kimberley Process

The Kimberley process is a method or system through which all the trades which are taking place for diamonds illegally would be removed. This would especially help to eradicate the presence of conflict diamonds. The Kimberley process was first established after most of the states that were producing diamonds in South Africa held a meeting in Kimberley to discuss and find a solution to the elimination of the blood diamonds in the country. They also wanted to make sure that most of the blood diamonds and the trade between conflict diamonds did not put the sale of these diamonds in the wrong hands. With this worry fresh in their minds, they established the Kimberley Process which was a certification scheme which becomes operational in 2003. This had to happen after the UN found so many links between the presence of diamonds and the way in which the rebel movement in South Africa was being sponsored.

For countries that want to join the Kimberley process, they would have to meet some certain conditions before they would be allowed to join. While there are certain requirements which would have to be met, the Kimberley process has no restrictions placed on them. Kimberley Process

How many countries are part of the Kimberley Process?

The certification scheme currently has about 81 countries in total who have a total of 54 representatives which are present in the scheme. It is important at this point to note what the process is about. The Kimberley process allows members of this scheme to mine the raw diamonds. In other words, what this means is that the majority of the world’s diamonds are sourced from this scheme. Another reason why the Kimberley process is on the right path is due to the presence of the World Diamond Council. The world diamond council has been instrumental to most of the development which has taken place in the scheme up until now.
Countries part of the Kimberley Process
Courtesy of Duke University

How do they operate?

Every representative who is presently in the Kimberley process would have to fulfill a lot of requirements before they would be allowed to participate in this process. One of the reasons for the requirements is to ensure that all transportation of the raw diamonds would be done without any threat of conflict along the way. The representative of the Kimberley process ensures the safety of the diamonds by ensuring that they take the legal route when transporting the diamonds and stay far away from illegitimate trade. If a country is part of the Kimberley process, then they would have to make sure that they meet a certain requirement in order to remain in the scheme. This would also allow them to be able to trade these diamonds with other states who are also part of the scheme. Without meeting the minimum requirement, they stand a chance of getting kicked out of the certification process. The Kimberley process also extends to the international process. The raw diamonds which are being transported from one place to another and across countries must have evidence of being controlled by the Kimberley process. Without this evidence, it would not be possible for the diamonds to be traded.

The seat of the chairman

The Kimberley process has a chairman. This chairman can come from any of the countries which are represented in the Kimberley process. The chairman seat rotates between these countries and is done so on a regular basis. Some of the countries that have produced chairmen from the beginning of the process include Russia, Canada, India, Botswana and of course South Africa. There are also other countries such as the US and China who are also part of this process. In 2015, the present chairman of the Kimberley process was from Angola. The rotation makes it easier to keep in check the power of each country in the process and makes it easier to maintain the scheme for a very long time to come.

The future of diamonds

There can be no doubt that the future of diamonds is very bright. There have been so many innovations which have been predicted to help take the trade of diamonds to another level. Chief among them would be the use of the Blockchain technology to make sure that all gemstones are gotten from the right source. Once a Kimberley certificate has been issued out to a diamond, the effect of the BlockChain would mean that no one would have the ability to change the certificate that was issued. This would also allow for the diamonds to be checked throughout all the other processes which it is meant to follow. This would include the process of mining and trade. With the ability to do this and so much more, there is no doubt that the future is there to absolutely blow our minds. There can be no doubt that every gemstone or raw material which is as precious as the gemstone diamond would need to be regulated. This is to make sure that it does not become a source of conflicts that can cause a lot of lives to be lost. This is exactly what the Kimberley process achieves. Thanks to the Kimberley process, there are ways in which countries can take raw or rough diamonds that have been gotten and trade them with other countries with the aim of making enough revenues. That is the right thing to do.

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