Where Is the Kimberley Certificate?
The revised System of Warranties should carry the Kimberley Process story all the way to the jewelry counter.
A member of the WDC’s Kimberley Process Task Force (KPTF), Alexander D. Gul is Chief Operating Officer of A. Gul KG, a diamond trading company headquartered in Pforzheim, Germany, where he leads strategy, operations, and international commercial development across the European markets.
In parallel, he is an active participant in industry bodies and initiatives shaping standards, responsible sourcing frameworks, and the future positioning of natural diamonds in a shifting regulatory and consumer environment.
He holds an MBA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a CAIA Charterholder, participated in the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard Business School, and completed the Business & Sustainability Programme at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
SEPTEMBER 17, 2026
“Can you send me the Kimberley certificate?”
We hear versions of this request regularly. It arrives in an ordinary email, often beside a question about price, a delivery date or a grading report. A retailer may ask whether a polished diamond is “Kimberley certified.” A jeweler may ask for the certificate belonging to a particular stone. Sometimes the appeal is simply: “Please send the Kimberley.”
The terminology may be imprecise. The question is not.
A jeweler, retailer or consumer wants to know what stands behind the diamond and whether it was sourced responsibly. They expect our industry to give a clear answer.
The technical explanation is familiar. Kimberley Process certificates accompany international shipments of rough diamonds. They are not individual certificates attached to polished stones. It is the WDC’s System of Warranties that carries assurance through business-to-business transactions involving rough diamonds, polished diamonds and diamond jewelry.
We have all tried to give this explanation, but few of us would call it elegant. For while it’s technically correct, it’s not exactly an answer designed to be delivered across the jewelry store counter.
What the ‘Kimberley’ question really means
It is easy to treat a request for “the Kimberley certificate” as customer confusion. We correct the language, explain the paperwork and move on. But we’re missing the point.
When a retailer asks for the certificate, the real question is often: “What can I tell my customer?” When a consumer asks whether a diamond “has Kimberley,” what he or she means to ask is: “Can I trust its story?”
That is not a failure of understanding. It is market feedback.
The Kimberley Process name has traveled further than the understanding behind it. This is because the buying public has come to associate the KP with responsible sourcing, which is a practice consumers consider most important.
However, the closer one gets to those actually purchasing the finished product, the more likely one is to discover ignorance about the systems that verify that the integrity of the diamonds has not been compromised.
The revised System of Warranties gives the industry a timely chance to close that knowledge gap. This is because its warranty statement declaratively associates the SoW with broader responsible business principles that the public appreciates, including human and labor rights, anti-money laundering and anti-corruption.
This makes the revised SoW an important asset, but only if it is deliberately and openly applied. If the updated version is introduced like a silent software update to invoice templates, its declarative value may be significantly reduced.
Adopting the revised SoW does require concrete action. Companies must register and complete a self-assessment, after which they receive unique identification numbers that may appear with the warranty statement.
To take proper advantage of the revised system, one should not simply replace the older declaration with the newer one. One should use the opportunity to explain the system again, not only to compliance teams and diamond traders, but also to the jewelers and retailers who face the public directly and who will communicate to consumers how we can be sure a stone was responsibly sourced.
Used smartly, the SoW can clarify what a Kimberley Process certificate actually means.
The author requesting the right to speak, during the Kimberley Processs Intersessional Meeting in Dubai in May 2025.
Make SoW participation visible
One possibility worth exploring together is a simple and recognizable SoW participation mark for businesses that register, complete the self-assessment and provide basic training to relevant employees.
It would not certify an individual diamond, prove mine of origin or serve as a universal ethical seal. Its role would be narrower. It would indicate that a specific business participates in the SoW, understands the warranty it passes on and employs people able to explain its purpose.
A unique participation number would provide a credible starting point. It would connect invoices, websites, staff training and customer information through one consistent identity.
A symbol alone is not a complete educational tool, but it could make an otherwise invisible system visible.
Giving a clear answer across the jewelry counter
Jewelers and retailers are critical participants. They need to train their sales teams so they can explain the system clearly and candidly.
They do not have to do that on their own. They can reach out to the WDC, become members and work with us to co-create dedicated tools that reflect the questions their own teams hear from the customers they serve.
The answer is not simply another technical document. The material must be built for actual use by the people speaking to customers. They require a 60-second explanation before they need a 60-page toolkit.
They must be able to answer a few basic questions with confidence. What does a KP certificate cover? Why are there no individual KP certificates for each polished diamond? What role does the SoW play after a stone has been converted from rough into polished? What does the SoW confirm, and what does it not confirm? When might additional provenance information be relevant?
Short training modules, simple visual material and ready-to-use answers could make that possible. The objective is not to turn every sales associate into a policy specialist. It is to give them enough understanding to speak clearly, answer honestly and know when to ask for more.
This is also where collaboration with the WDC can be practical. Tools can be developed with jewelers and retailers, rather than simply handed down to them. We need to be sure that they work as well at the counter as they do on paper. The people closest to the consumer should not be the people furthest from the explanation.
Jewelers and retailers are not merely the last recipients of industry assurances. They must be able to translate those assurances into understanding.
Clarity also means explaining the limits
The KP, the SoW and product-level traceability do not answer identical questions. The KP has a defined mandate concerning conflict diamonds and international trade in rough diamonds. The SoW extends assurance through downstream business-to-business transactions and adds important responsible business expectations. Other tools may provide additional origin or provenance information.
These systems complement one another. Think of them as different links in the same chain. Each has its own job to do, and the strength comes from understanding how they connect. Trouble begins when we melt them into one broad promise that none of them was designed to carry alone.
The author together with WDC Executive Director Elodie Daguzan in September 2026.
This matters especially when we use the words “conflict-free.” A customer may hear a universal guarantee covering every human rights, environmental, political and origin-related concern. If the system does not promise something, we should say so clearly.
Explaining boundaries does not weaken confidence. Overpromising does.
The opportunity hidden in the question
“Where is the Kimberley certificate?”
Behind the imperfect wording is a perfectly reasonable demand for clarity.
The industry should stop treating that question as something to correct and start treating it as something to answer better. It is an invitation to explain why the Kimberley Process exists, what it does, how the SoW carries assurance further and where other forms of due diligence or provenance may add information.
I see the value of that connection directly through my own involvement in the WDC’s Kimberley Process Task Force. It has provided me with a perspective that goes beyond individual transactions — into the discussions between governments and industry, the practical realities behind the rules and the work required to turn policy into something businesses can actually use.
That perspective matters when a customer asks a seemingly simple question, because the answer can be found inside a much bigger system. And it is precisely why jewelers and retailers should lean on the WDC.
Ask questions. Tell us where the explanation breaks down. Tell us what your sales teams are hearing at the counter and what they struggle to answer. Become part of the conversation.
The WDC is there to serve the industry, and membership should be more than a name on a list. It should give businesses a place to bring those real-world questions and, where useful, to co-create explanations, training and tools that work for their own teams and customers.
The revised SoW does not require a new promise. It requires a better-understood one.
The next time someone asks for “the Kimberley certificate,” we should answer accurately. But we should also hear the question behind the question. They want to know what stands behind the diamond and whether they can trust its story.
The SoW already travels through the supply chain. Now we need to make sure the understanding travels with it.