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Even though Zimbabwe’s cabinet agreed last week to ensure that diamond revenue is remitted to the treasury, smuggling, looting and leaks in the pipeline will remain serious problems unless urgent measures are taken to curb them. When Zimbabwe held mass diamond sales in India in November 2011, bargain hunters from as far as Israel, Lebanon and China […]
Two major trends are currently engulfing the diamond market – branding and ethical consumerism. Savvy diamond firms across the pipeline would do well to enmesh the two. Ultimately, a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, which defines its ethical practice, should enhance and not diminish its brand.
Press Release: The Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) has released the draft standards for its Development Diamonds ethical certification project. The goal of the project is to help ensure that the more than 1.5 million artisanal and small-scale diamond miners become part of broader efforts to promote responsible business practices. The Development Diamond Standards (DDS) project […]
The Kimberley Process intercessional meeting in Washington D.C. concluded today with chairwoman Gillian Milovanovic, representing the U.S., commending all parties involved for working towards the November plenary meeting. “I can say that it was a very positive meting where a lot of work was accomplished,” she said, adding “the intercessional, as you know, is not a […]
The following is the full transcript of the speech delivered by Eli Izhakoff, President of the World Diamond Council, to the Intercessional Meeting of the Kimberley Process, which opened in Washington, D.C., this morning.
If it looks like a diamond and shines like a diamond, it must be a diamond. That is, at least, from a consumer point of view. The respective discussions this past week regarding undisclosed synthetic stones filtering the market and attempts at the World Diamond Council (WDC) meeting to widen the definition of conflict diamonds […]
We asked our International team of reporters and editors, located in the United States, Russia, Namibia, China, Italy and Belgium, to send their questions for an interview with the KP Chair Milovanovic. We would like to sincerely thank Ambassador Gillian Milovanovic for taking her time to answer our questions.
Press Release: Millennial-age consumers—the generation comprising the primary bridal jewelry market—are both far more conscious of social responsibility than previous generations, and far more demanding that the companies they do business with behave responsibly and give back. For jewelers, this means not only being able to reassure customers that your diamonds are conflict-free, but also […]
The World Diamond Council’s (WDC) 8th Annual Meeting has concluded. The meeting passed a resolution expressing support for expanding the definition of “Conflict” as defined by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. Keynote speaker Susan Shabangu, mining minister of South Africa, stated that the challenge to the sustainability of the diamond industry is no longer limited […]
Should the recent conviction of Liberian warlord Charles Taylor for war crimes be seen as the last word on blood diamonds, or a moment to take note of how the diamond industry has been caught offside by new forms of violence that threaten once again to taint a “girl’s best friend“? It’s a question the […]
Kimberley Process (KP) certificates supposedly issued by Cameroon are in the market, though Cameroon is not a KP Participant and therefore cannot issue KP certificates.
The calls for greater transparency by the Kimberley Process were heard. A wealth of decisions, background information, data about the working groups and more are now available on the KP website.