In mid-November, the Kimberley Process (KP) lifted its embargo against the Central African Republic (CAR); there’s a good backgrounder here. In this special guest editorial, Brad Brooks-Rubin (pictured)—who has worked for the U.S. government, industry associations, and a nongovernmental organization (NGO)—gives his view on what this means for the certification scheme’s future.
Recently I walked into a jewelry store and asked about blood diamonds. The salesperson, leaning on their training, talked to me about the Kimberley Process certification scheme. Per the standard industry talking points, I was told that 99% of diamonds are conflict-free and that the KP helps support local development in diamond-mining countries.
No disrespect to the salesperson, but the industry, and governments that support it, could better connect with consumers on issues they care about by redirecting the money they are now wasting propping up the outdated KP, and focusing those funds on what the modern consumer needs to know in order to be persuaded to buy more demonstrably ethical natural diamonds.
It’s clear, after the KP’s recent plenary in Dubai, it can no longer effectively confer conflict-free (or ethical) status on any diamond. It’s actually hard to know for sure what happened at the plenary, since the initiative stopped issuing published communiques and just put out a short press release from the chair, saying the KP admitted Uzbekistan, implemented late-20th-century “digitization” (meaning PDFs), and gave up on its failed 11-year embargo of actual conflict diamonds in the Central African Republic. The lack of transparency alone should frustrate the industry. Is that what hundreds of diplomats, technocrats, and industry reps flew to Dubai—twice—to do in 2024 (and are set to do again in 2025)?
With no transparency, and a world that has simply moved on, it is time for the KP to eliminate its much-debated, overly narrow definition of conflict diamonds—which the KP calls “rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments [as determined by UN Resolutions].” The governments, industry, and civil society organizations involved in the KP all have much better things to spend millions of dollars every year on than continuing to invest in and implement a now-outdated model to achieve supply chain responsibility. The industry already has more inclusive and comprehensive efforts, including the Responsible Jewellery Council and Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030.
The KP has only one narrowly defined job: to focus on rebel movements seeking to overthrow governments. Although the negotiation and development of the KP in the early 2000s surely had an impact on the flow of diamonds from the wars ongoing at the time, the KP has never effectively stopped the flow of conflict diamonds since it came online in 2003. Since 2013, CAR has been the only source of conflict diamonds (as defined by the KP). Yet throughout that time, CAR has been a country riven by armed groups, whose government has used the infamous Kremlin-backed private military company the Wagner Group to assist with internal security.
None of the KP’s 11 years of actions in CAR have stopped rebel movements, or the Wagner Group, from controlling diamond mines and sales. And despite the Wagner Group being responsible for horrific violence, rape, killing, and other abuses against the local population of CAR—and being sanctioned by the United States as a “significant transnational criminal organization”—the Wagner Group selling diamonds is not technically a KP issue, as it works for the government.
Consider this: How many shipments of conflict diamonds from CAR or Côte d’Ivoire—a former source of conflict diamonds—have been stopped? How many traders in CAR diamonds have been arrested, tried, or convicted? How many Indian importers and manufacturers know that CAR diamonds have been banned from their wheels for the last 11 years? How many U.S. retailers knew? How many times have manufacturers or retailers contacted the authorities to report concerns, since diamonds from prohibited regions of CAR were still entering the supply chain? Finally, why hasn’t the KP published its CAR monitoring team reports or the report of its recent review mission, so the industry and consumers understand why it should now accept CAR diamonds into supply chains and the jewelry they are buying? Are Wagner Group diamonds what we want on a finger?
The KP made the right decision in ending the CAR embargo—not because armed groups no longer exist, but because the effort failed. But rather than celebrate, it just shows how unlikely it is that the KP will ever designate any diamonds as conflict again—due to diamond issues becoming politicized (both within the KP and at the United Nations), as well as the KP’s absolute-consensus decision-making structure and inability to enforce its decisions.
So let’s stop pretending the KP exists to stop conflict diamonds and change it into a baseline of statistics for the global rough diamond trade. These numbers are useful to the industry and global community. Maintaining the KP also allows civil society organizations to have a platform for engaging governments, without their safety being threatened. The KP could still meet annually to decide on issues related to statistics. But with a narrower remit, these meetings could be much smaller and more technical gatherings, and the staffs dedicated to compliance in government and industry could be redirected.
In 2000, the diamond industry made a bold decision to establish the KP. It has since served its purpose. It’s time for the diamond supply chain to recognize its past achievement and now allocate its resources in more effective ways to support diamond mining communities.
Brad Brooks-Rubin is the former special adviser for the U.S. State Department for conflict diamonds and former senior adviser in the Office of Sanctions Coordination. He is currently a partner at Arktouros PLLC.
(photo courtesy of the author, Brad Brooks-Rubin)
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