The African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) has identified the six Kimberley Process (KP) members that vetoed the proposed new conflict-diamond definition last week.
The participants at the KP plenary that nixed the expanded description, to which all members must agree for it to pass, were Australia, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, Ukraine and the US, the ADPA said last week. A large majority of the KP’s Ad Hoc Committee on Review and Reform (AHCRR), including the major diamond-producing countries, backed the proposed version with some modifications, it added.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution number 55/56 ratified the current definition: “rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflicts aimed at undermining legitimate governments.”
The ADPA’s proposed definition broadens this to include armed and non-state groups, UN Security Council-sanctioned individuals and entities, and their allies. It also covers activities that finance armed conflict or threaten legitimate governments and the welfare of diamond-producing communities.
The wording aims to avoid language affecting participant sovereignty, a legal area beyond the KP’s responsibility.
Among the six that blocked the proposal was the EU, which has in recent years sought to bypass the KP and apply its own regulations to the diamond trade, ADPA said. The African trade group reaffirmed its commitment to the KP as the only UN- and World Trade Organization-recognized certification scheme for rough diamonds, grounded in its three pillars: government, industry and civil society.
During the recent plenary, KP chair Ahmed Bin Sulayem observed that the body had not yet appointed a participant to chair it for 2026. South Africa proposed that the KP Secretariat take on the responsibility of coordinating all meetings until the appointment of an official KP chair, or until Ghana becomes chair in 2027.
Image: Rough diamonds. (Shutterstock)