WDC President praises determination of KP Participants and Observers, which led to critical decisions during 2023 Plenary

World Diamond Council President Feriel Zerouki struck a cautiously optimistic note at the conclusion of the 2023 Kimberley Process Plenary on November 10, 2023, at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, after the Plenary agreed on 98 items.

WDC President stands determined to drive progress in the KP to deliver peace and prosperity for all, in opening address to the 2023 Kimberley Process Plenary

Addressing the Opening Session of the 2023 KP Plenary at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe on November 6, World Diamond Council President Feriel Zerouki emphasized the WDC’s determination to drive forward the ambition of the KP, which serves to foster peace, security and benefit all diamond stakeholders sustainably.

Addressing 2023 CIBJO Congress, WDC President stresses importance of ESG principles and equitable opportunity

World Diamond Council President Feriel Zerouki has emphasized the heightened importance of responsibility, sustainability and provenance in the jewelry industry, specifically because its products are used to celebrate important life moments.

WDC President commends KP Participants and Observers

The 2023 Intersessional Meeting of the Kimberley Process concluded yesterday in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Addressing the closing session of the gathering, World Diamond Council President Feriel Zerouki was positive about headway having been made during the four-day event.

KP’s diversity should be the source of its strength says WDC President

In her first speech to the Kimberley Process as President of the World Diamond Council, Feriel Zerouki has stressed that the diversity of opinion and background of the KP’s members – Participants and Observers alike – should be considered not a deficiency but rather a source of strength.

Feriel Zerouki assumes office as WDC President

She take office following three years as WDC Vice President and almost two decades as a leading advocate for enhancing standards and driving progress within the diamond industry.

WDC proposal helps break impasse, allowing for successful conclusion to 2022 KP Plenary

The 2022 Kimberley Process Meeting ended successfully in the early hours of November 5, after a compromise proposal offered by the World Diamond Council managed to break an impasse that could have prevented the gathering dispersing without issuing a Final Communiqué.

WDC President Edward Asscher addresses the opening of the 2022 Kimberley Process Plenary

With the KP about to mark the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) in January 2003, it is important that the international forum not rest on the laurels of its early successes, the WDC President told the Opening Session of the 2022 KP Plenary in Gaborone, Botswana, on November 1, 2022.
The 2022 KP Plenary was expected to approve a new Ad Hoc Committee to oversee the next Review and Reform Cycle, which is undertaken every five years. The conflict diamonds definition, which has remained unchanged since 2003 and applies only to rough diamonds financing civil war, will be at key item on its agenda, Edward Asscher said.

Reform of Kimberley Process essential to ensure relevance, WDC President tells Opening Session of 2022 KP Plenary

If the Kimberley Process (KP) does not adopt the reforms necessary to ensure that its rough certification scheme remains relevant in a changed world, natural diamonds could lose relevance with the new generations of socially conscious diamond consumers, said WDC President Edward Asscher, in his address yesterday to the Opening Session of the KP Plenary in Gaborone, Botswana.

Calling on the industry’s younger generation to step up and become involved

We may well be approaching a tipping point. If there ever was a time to take control over your destiny, rather than being carried along by the tide, it is now. With a global economic recession looming and geopolitical instability, I urge colleagues among our industry’s younger generation to help us preserve the integrity of natural diamonds, as an ethical product that is the economic driver for economies and societies across the globe.