The Lion That Didn't Roar: Can The Kimberley Process Stop The Blood Diamonds Trade?
by Nigel Davidson /
2016 / English / PDF
2.8 MB Download
In 2017 it will be Australia’s turn to chair the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme (KP), an international organisation set up to
regulate the trade in diamonds. Diamonds are a symbol of love,
purchased to celebrate marriage, and it is therefore deeply ironic
that the diamond trade has become linked with warfare and human
rights violations committed in African producer countries such as
Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and, more recently,
Zimbabwe and Angola. In their quest for diamonds, or by using
diamonds to purchase weapons, armed groups in these countries have
engaged in recruiting child soldiers, amputating limbs, and
committing rape and murder. In response to the problem, the
international community, non-governmental organisations and key
industry players such as De Beers combined forces to create the
Kimberley Process in 2002. The KP uses an export certificate system
to distinguish the legitimate rough diamond trade from so-called
‘blood diamonds’, which are also known as ‘conflict diamonds’. This
book considers the extent to which the KP, supported by other
agencies at the international and national levels, has been
effective in achieving its mandate. In so doing, it presents an
original model derived from the domain of regulatory theory, the
Dual Networked Pyramid, as a means of describing the operation of
the system and suggesting possible improvements that might be made
to it.
In 2017 it will be Australia’s turn to chair the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme (KP), an international organisation set up to
regulate the trade in diamonds. Diamonds are a symbol of love,
purchased to celebrate marriage, and it is therefore deeply ironic
that the diamond trade has become linked with warfare and human
rights violations committed in African producer countries such as
Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and, more recently,
Zimbabwe and Angola. In their quest for diamonds, or by using
diamonds to purchase weapons, armed groups in these countries have
engaged in recruiting child soldiers, amputating limbs, and
committing rape and murder. In response to the problem, the
international community, non-governmental organisations and key
industry players such as De Beers combined forces to create the
Kimberley Process in 2002. The KP uses an export certificate system
to distinguish the legitimate rough diamond trade from so-called
‘blood diamonds’, which are also known as ‘conflict diamonds’. This
book considers the extent to which the KP, supported by other
agencies at the international and national levels, has been
effective in achieving its mandate. In so doing, it presents an
original model derived from the domain of regulatory theory, the
Dual Networked Pyramid, as a means of describing the operation of
the system and suggesting possible improvements that might be made
to it.