History in the making? The Kimberley Process plans to hold discussions on a new definition for conflict diamonds “for the first time since it was founded almost 20 years ago,” IDEX Online reports.
In his address to the Opening Session of the KP Plenary in Gaborone, Botswana last week (November 1), WDC president Edward Asscher said: “We were unable to reach consensus in the previous Review and Reform cycle about how it may be possible to reference violations of human rights in the conflict diamonds definition. But in the past two years the centrality of human rights has been formally recognized by the KP Plenary.”
Ukraine, the EU, the US and other KP members tried to kickstart the process last June, but the attempt was blocked by Russia, Belarus, Central African Republic (CAR) and Kyrgyzstan.
According to the report, the current 2022 KP Plenary “is expected to approve a review into its definition of conflict diamonds as covering only rough diamonds used to finance civil war.”
