The Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition (KPCSC), the umbrella organization that acts as an observer of the Kimberley Process on behalf of civil society, has demanded action from members of the diamond mining and jewelry industries. In a Call for Action first shared publicly during a live webinar on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021, the KPCSC identified four key actions industry can take to ‘Stop the ongoing flow of conflict diamonds:
- Abandon conflict-free marketing claims: As there exists today no standardised, testable system guaranteeing that any diamond is free of conflict, conflict-free assurances constitute consumer deception.
- Stop talking about diamond-affected communities without actually talking with them: Companies should honestly, transparently and without manipulation engage diamond-affected communities, and not just hand-chosen examples, in particular when publicly discussing or making statements about their well-being.
- Implement due diligence on diamond supply chains: Given the challenges of ensuring traceability of diamonds it is all the more important to improve, and independently audit, social, environmental and human rights standards at the mining level. The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) offers a promising standard but no diamond mining companies have yet subscribed to it.
- Stop representing standards created by industry associations, such as the World Diamond Council’s revised System of Warranties (SoW) Guidelines, as proof of ethical diamond origin or actual human rights due diligence. The SoW Guidelines promote best business practices, but they do not require users to take functional, concrete steps to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for human rights risks and impacts along the diamond supply chain.
