About

The Kimberley Process started when Southern African diamond-producing states met in Kimberley, South Africa, in May 2000, to discuss ways to stop the trade in ‘conflict diamonds' and ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments.

In December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution supporting the creation of an international certification scheme for rough diamonds. By November 2002, negotiations between governments, the international diamond industry and civil society organisations resulted in the creation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) . The KPCS document sets out the requirements for controlling rough diamond production and trade. The KPCS entered into force in 2003, when participating countries started to implement its rules.

Who is involved?

The Kimberley Process has 55 participants, representing 82 countries, with the European Union and its 27 Member States counting as a single participant, represented by the European Commission.. KP members account for approximately 99.8% of the global production of rough diamonds. In addition, the World Diamond Council, representing the international diamond industry, and civil society organisations, such as Partnership-Africa Canada, participate in the KP and have played a major role since its outset.

How does the Kimberley Process work?

The Kimberley Process(KP) is chaired, on a rotating basis, by participating countries. So far, Republic of South Africa(2003), Canada(2004), Russian Federation(2005), Botswana (2006), the European Union(2007), India(2008) , Namibia( 2009), Israel (2010), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2011), United States of America (2012), Republic of South Africa (2013), the People’s Republic of China (2014) , Angola (2015) , United Arab Emirates(2016) have lead the scheme. Australia is the 2017 Kimberley Process chair.

The Republic of South Africa is the 1st country to chair the Scheme in 2003 and also chaired in order to commemorate the 10th year anniversary at its birthplace in 2013. Currently, the Republic of South Africa to chair the Working Group on Monitoring for the period of 2017 to 2019. This working group oversees the implementation and compliance to the Kimberley Process minimum requirements through among others the peer review mechanism and reports.

KP member countries, commonly known as Participants, and Observers( non-country participants)- gather twice a year at intersessional meeting and the decision making meeting called Plenary.
 

For further information on KPCS: www.kimberleyprocess.com