World Diamond Council

Kimberley Process Implementation

DIAMOND IDNDUSTRY ACTS TO END CONFLICT

The World Diamond Council (WDC), representing the international diamond industry and trade, welcomes the Interlaken Declaration reached on the 5^th November in Interlaken, Switzerland, as the culmination of two years’ unprecedented cooperation between governments, industry and civil society in the Kimberley Process to end the trade in ‘conflict diamonds’ and thus help to prevent the deaths and suffering of innocent people.

Ministers of the 50 participating nations endorsed intergovernmental measures – as mandated by the United Nations General Assembly – to introduce the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for the trade in rough diamonds. The WDC affirms the industry’s undertaking to implement simultaneously the self-regulation contained in the scheme.

At the World Diamond Congress held in London on the 29^th October, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and the International Diamond Manufacturers’ Association passed unanimously a Resolution that created the voluntary system of industry self-regulation to support the government undertakings of the Kimberley Process.

To underpin the system of Warranties set up by the Resolution, individual members of the international diamond industry and trade will instruct their independent auditors to verify that records of warranties are being created and maintained, in the normal course of business, in compliance with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. This certification will be subject to government verification.

The WDC calls on the governments of participating nations to implement the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme without delay on the 1^st January 2003. The international diamond industry acknowledges the determination of the international community and the dedication of civil society in establishing – in partnership with industry – mechanisms to eradicate the trade in ‘conflict diamonds’.

Interlaken

5^th November 2002