What is being done to stop the sale of blood diamonds?

In 2000, a Non–Governmental Organization’s report showed that the underground trade of illicit blood diamonds was booming. Conflict diamonds were valued between 4 percent and 15 percent of the world’s total diamond market, which generated annual conflict diamond trade revenues of $7.5 billion. The response from the governments, the UN and the diamond industry was swift and decisive. Following international concern at the role played by the illicit conflict diamond trade in fuelling conflict in Sierra Leone, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1306 on 5 July 2000 imposing a ban on the direct or indirect import of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone not controlled by the Government of Sierra Leone through a Certificate of Origin regime. An arms embargo and selective travel ban on non–governmental forces were already in effect under resolution 1171 of 5 June 1998. Compared to the murderous rampage of R.U.F. rebels, U.N. sanctions appear lenient.

10 years after the war began; the United Nations finally intervened in Sierra Leone in June 2001. As a result of their delay, thousands of Sierra Leonean children were killed and mutilated because there was no large scale, international intervention in the early stages of the conflict. The horrific atrocities in Sierra Leone and the long suffering of the people of Angola have heightened the international community's awareness. But U.N. efforts alone won’t stop the senseless killing in Sierra Leone and Angola over illicit blood diamonds. In the distant future NGOs may go so far as to urge the public to boycott African mined diamonds all together.

The publicity of this blood diamond report forced the diamond industry to form the World Diamond Congress to formulate its collective response, and national governments around the world drafted legislation to outlaw and criminalize the any trade in "conflict diamonds". Then with the help of the South African government a trilateral forum between national governments, the diamond industry and NGOs met in Kimberley in May 2000, out of which emerged the Kimberley Process. The World Diamond Congress, in Antwerp, on the 19th July 2000, agreed on a resolution to prevent the illegal trade in blood diamonds for financing armed conflicts and crimes against humanity.. Their efforts resulted in The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), an international effort to rid the world of conflict diamonds. Participation is voluntary but it is supported by countries producing more than 99% of the world’s diamonds. The Kimberly Process is an agreement between national governments, NGOs and the diamond industry to tackle the problem of rough diamond trade fuelling conflicts in countries such as Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire.

In January 2003, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was launched which requires governments to pass legislation and put systems in place to control the import and export of rough diamonds. The goals of the Kimberley Process are to document and track all rough diamonds entering a participating country, with shippers placing diamond rough in tamper–proof shipping crates and providing enough detailed information about their origins to prove they did not originate in a conflict zone. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) imposes requirements on participants to certify that shipments of rough diamonds are conflict–free. South African countries with a legitimate diamond trade began a campaign to track the origins of all rough diamonds, attempting to halt the sales of blood diamonds from conflict areas. For South Africa, the world’s fifth–largest diamond producer, the success of KPCS, as an effective solution to the problem of conflict diamonds was critical. The launching of the Kimberly Process at the initiative of African diamond–producing countries was a great start to stopping blood diamonds from getting to market.

Today, the Kimberley Process can claim with confidence that trade in conflict diamonds, or those with questionable provenance, has been reduced to some 0.2% of the total global market. When fully implemented the diamond industry will have the ability to block blood diamonds from ever reaching the global market. The Kimberley Process has evolved into a global certification scheme founded on national legislation, and is effectively eradicating trade in rough diamonds that did not carry a government–issued certificate of origin warranting that the diamond was not mined or traded in an area of conflict. All available data shows an "overwhelming proportion" of rough trade in diamonds was taking place through the KPCS and the scheme was an important in preventing renewed conflict in Sierra Leone and the CongoIn the United States, the KPCS is enforced by the Clean Diamond Trade Act, introduced in 2003, which requires annual reviews of the standards, practices and procedures of any entity in the US that issues KP certificates for the export of rough diamonds. Another report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that conflict diamonds could be entering the U.S. because of weak enforcement of the law.