KP Compliance Training and Jewelry Certification at Vicenza

(IDEX Online News) – Ways of tracking and labeling jewelry as manufactured and traded in an ethical manner will be examined at a high-level seminar taking place on the sidelines of two global meetings in Vicenza, Italy in May.

The Antwerp ITCCO (International Training Center for Corporate Opportunities) will conduct a seminar focusing on the creation of properly structured training and capacity development programs to support Kimberley Process compliance.

Representatives of the UN, the European Community, governments and the KP, as well as leaders from the diamond and jewelry industries, will consider the strengthening of the Kimberley Process through training and capacity development, and the establishment of systems designed to enable the monitoring, certification and labeling of ethical jewelry.

The seminar will include two sessions. The first will focus on the creation of properly structured training and capacity development programs to support Kimberley Process compliance.

The second session will look at the development of systems to monitor CSR in the distribution chain with the eventual goal of being able to certify and label jewelry that is manufactured and traded in an ethical manner. Participants will consider the options available for reviewing and tracking ethics and sustainability performance in the jewelry sector, including those based on existing international principles, guidelines and standards.

"Our goal in conducting this seminar is to consider the challenges and opportunities, and to chart a path for moving forward together by sharing knowledge and practices," said Lopes.

"In the years since the launch of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme we have been increasingly aware that the effectiveness of the system is not only a factor of the regulatory systems that are put in place by the member countries, but also of the way in which KPSC is understood and implemented at the grass roots level throughout the chain of distribution," said Eli Izhakoff, President of the World Diamond Council. "Education is a critical component of the venture, and it is that which we will focus upon in Vicenza."

"The ITCCO seminar will emphasize the duality of CSR and sustainability in the greater jewelry sector," said Gaetano Cavalieri, President of CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation. "It will examine how, through proper responsible and ethical business practices, we will not only defend the reputation of our products and our industry, but we will also provide proper economic opportunity to and improve the wellbeing of all our stakeholders, from the mines to the consumer markets."

The seminar will be held May 15 as part of the World Jewelry Forum, hosted by the Fiera di Vicenza from May 13 to May 23. It will take place a day after the close of the 8th Annual Meeting of the World Diamond Council, and two days before the start of the 2012 CIBJO Congress on May 17.