No reason for discord in diamond industry grouping

Dubai: The Civil Society Coalition has launched a boycott of the Kimberley Process to coincide with the UAE’s chairmanship, which Ahmad Bin Sulayem, incoming chair of the Kimberley Group, has described as misguided and hopes to resolve.

Civil society groups are one of the three stakeholders in the tripartite Kimberley Process, which also includes governments and industry bodies. The civil society representatives have been holding KP boycotting meetings until some of its demands are met — these mainly relate to a fast-track review of the current status quo by the working group.

“They wanted the UAE to go through a review — and we had a successful review during 2015 when Angola was KP chair,” said Bin Sulayem, who will be the chair of the Kimberley Process when the UAE takes over from January 1.

“The boycott is a misguided step. And the door is always open for them to come back. We want any organisation to be able to contribute fairly and transparently to discussions on the Kimberley Process and to work together on improving the future of the diamond sector.

“None of the participating countries have any issues with the UAE assuming the chair of the working group otherwise they would have raised concerns.

“We were strongly supported (in the push towards assuming the chairperson’s role for 2016) by most, including Canada, Australia and China.”

In addition to the civil groups, the Kimberly Process includes the governments of the 84 countries that are signatories, as well as industry groups such as the World Diamond Council and Diamond Development Initiative. Their single purpose in the Kimberly Process is to stop all diamonds sourced from mines in conflict zones from being traded.

According to Bin Sulayem, the diamond industry has become quite adept at self-regulation. “The industry has stepped up — The World Federation of Diamond Bourses, the World Diamond Council keep an eye on the industry,” he added.

“The producing countries also have a vested interest in stopping their mines having no value and no revenue from one of their key national resources.

“But there has always been a presence for Civil Society [in the Kimberley Process] to always monitor that standards are up to those that are set down.”