With the Holiday Season about to begin and as we welcome in a new year, it’s an opportune time to reflect on the journey we have taken together in 2023, and to consider what awaits us during the months ahead.
With the Holiday Season about to begin and as we welcome in a new year, it’s an opportune time to reflect on the journey we have taken together in 2023, and to consider what awaits us during the months ahead.
This upgraded SoW is for the entire diamond and jewelry industry. It represents a defining moment.
Over its almost 19 years of operation, the KPCS has been remarkably successful in fulfilling its mission, eliminating almost entirely the trade in rough diamond being used to finance civil war. But it is limited in its scope, and unless that is expanded, it cannot be expected to be a panacea to other challenges afflicting artisanal miners, including human and labor rights violations, bribery and corruption.
It was in 1999 when Stephane Fischler introduced me to Ambassador Robert Fowler, Canada’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. As his country’s delegate to the UN Security Council, he had been issuing reports on the violation of UN-imposed sanctions by the UNITA rebel movement in Angola.
The final minutes are on the clock for the KP’s three-year review and reform cycle, which began in 2016 and will end at the Plenary Meeting under the chairmanship of India.
Next week, on October 2 and 3, representatives of the members of our organization, which are associations and companies from across the diamond and jewelry industries, will gather in Antwerp for the Annual General Meeting of the World Diamond Council (WDC). It is being hosted by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).
