Civil Society Coalition asks UN and KP to block sales of Zim Diamonds

The Civil Society Coalition (CSC), an alliance of international civil society organisations affiliated to the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) issued a statement last week, asking the UN and the KP to classify Zimbabwe's gemstones as conflict diamonds in order to prevent their sale in the global market.

The Statement came at the conclusion of the United Nations General Assembly's 73rd Session in New York. The CSC had participated in a session entitled "From blood diamonds to peace diamonds: conflict prevention through the Kimberley Process" that specifically addressed the topic of the KP as both a conflict prevention tool and a facilitator of sustainable development, good governance and transparency.

The CSC highlighted the involvement of the army in the mining of diamonds in Zimbabwe, as well as Angola, DRC and Venezuela. Farai Maguwu, director of the Zimbabwean Centre for Natural Resource Governance said: "The Civil Society Coalition highlighted the dangerous implications of the involvement of military officials in diamond mining or trading for national and international stability. NGO, media and expert reports have raised concerns about such issues in countries like Zimbabwe, Angola, DRC and Venezuela."

At the same meeting, Filip Reyniers,  director of the International Peace Information Service (IPIS) asked “that the UN expand the definition of conflict diamonds to incorporate those mined with the involvement of the army in any given country - drawing from the experience of the Central African Republic.”

"…Reyniers presented on some of the lessons that can be learned from the conflict diamond issues affecting the Central African Republic (CAR). These include the need to expand the definition of what constitutes a conflict diamond - a restriction that impeded KP intervention in the CAR to prevent a brutal part-diamond funded rebel coup in 2013," accding to the statement.

"If the UN does not provide the necessary oversight, the KP risks to focus more on continued trade than on peace and security-focused interventions. It is time to move the KP beyond noble words. If the KP does not both reform and start seriously implementing existing recommendations, it will truly remain nothing more than a gilded talking shop. This represents a woeful abuse of consumer confidence - a usurpation of the very tool consumers are referred to in seeking to ensure that their purchases intrinsically reflect the beauty and purity that they are supposed to represent," Reyniers said.