Communique of the KP Civil Society Coalition meeting in Brussels, 18-19 November 2011
You can download the pdf file here.
The Kimberley Process (KP) has thrown away its main point of leverage over the Zimbabwean government by allowing it to export diamonds from the controversial Marange region without first fulfilling previous commitments to reform its diamond trade, said the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition of NGOs today.
"The Kimberley Process has effectively given up on Zimbabwe," said Alfred Brownell, President of Green Advocates, Liberia. "KP member governments and the diamond industry seem ready to turn their back on the interests of Zimbabwe's citizens, the public good and the principles on which the Kimberley Process was founded."
As part of BICC´s engagement within the Kimberley Process, BICC, together with Heinrich Böll foundation organizes a round table discussion on the challenges arising from the situation in the Zimbabwean diamond sector.
See the invitation (pdf)
Activist organisations today expressed a vote of no confidence in the Kimberley Process, and walked out of the scheme’s meeting in Kinshasa, in protest at its failure to address human rights abuses associated with the diamond trade.
In July 2010 the US Congress passed the Dodd Frank Act, containing amendments on ‘conflict minerals’ from the Great Lakes region. The legislation came over a decade after the UN Security Council first expressed its concerns over the links between mineral exploitation and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This dynamic, which extends beyond the DRC’s borders, complicates efforts towards peace-building and security sector reform in the east of the country.
EURAC and Fatal Transactions urge the European Union and the member states to take action at numerous levels: encouraging EU companies trading in certain minerals to undertake adequate due diligence; support to certification and mapping efforts on the ground in eastern DRC; the reinforcement of Congolese state capacities to administer the mining sector; and support programs aimed at increasing socio-economic benefits from mining at community level.