India has committed to play an active role to curb the circulation of ‘conflict diamonds’ or ‘blood diamonds’ in the international market by further strengthening the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS).
“Even a single conflict diamond is one too many. India will play an active role in the evolution and transformation of the Kimberley Process (KP) and in the transition from conflict diamonds to peace diamonds,” Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi, India KP Chair and Director General, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), said at the opening session of the Kimberley Process Intersessional Meeting 2019, here on Monday.
“The 4Cs [cut, clarity, colour and carat] of diamond may soon be expanded to 5Cs with the fifth C being ‘conflict-free’. And the 5Ps of diamond marketing [precious, popular, prestige, priceless] will include ‘peace’ diamonds,” Mr. Chaturvedi said. KPCS Intersessional Meeting is an annual mid-year event of KPCS, which unites administrations, civil societies and diamond industry to reduce the flow of conflict diamonds used to finance wars against governments around the world, mostly in African countries. India is the KP chair for 2019.
Fifty-five members representating 82 countries, including the U.S., Russia, European Union, Africa, Canada, China, Israel, Japan, Singapore, Australia, UAE, New Zealand and South Africa, are participating in the four-day conference to deliberate on the issue and find a way forward. India, supported by the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), is hosting this event for the first time.
Mr. Chaturvedi said that ‘blood’ or ‘conflict’ diamonds had been almost excluded from global trade and now account for only 2%. Every rough diamond is accompanied by a certificate confirming its non-conflict origin, and export-import procedures in most of the countries are now subject to rigorous control.
Noting that the Kimberley Process (KP) had improved the lives of most people dependent on the industry, he said that India was committed to making this process stronger.
