I. Diamonds are an enduring symbol of beauty, yet have also figured in controversies on funding armed conflicts.
- War proponents have sold diamonds for funding
- Consumer side is largely unaware
- Burden of responsibility belongs to sellers
- Blood diamonds affect the integrity of diamond-related industries
- Africa, a hotbed of armed conflicts, is a center of the blood diamond trade
- There is a need to prevent sale of diamonds for funding armed conflicts
II. Blood diamonds refer to diamonds sold in markets in exchange for war funding.
- The 1974-2001 civil war in Angola featured the use of diamonds by the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to fund the conflict
- United Nations (UN) responded through Security Council resolutions
- The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) emerged in use as a regulatory mechanism against blood diamonds
- Diamond mining in the Ivory Coast started later than Angola
- The 1999 civil war in Ivory Coast made its diamond-related industries vulnerable for usage by war proponents
- UN stopped all diamond-related industries to curtail the sale of blood diamonds and halt civil war operations
- The nature of the diamond trade in Republic of Congo has shown anomalies
- Republic of Congo did not submit a detailed explanation of its high diamond sales to the KCPS, hence leading to its exclusion from the scheme in 2004
- Republic of Congo regained KCPS membership in 2007, despite anomalies pertaining to blood diamond trading
III. The 2000 World Diamond Congress gathered nations and representatives from diamond-related industries to create the KCPS, a framework that would stop the sale of blood diamonds
- Objective of the KCPS is to stop the use of diamonds as source of funds of war proponents, particularly in diamond-rich Africa
- Delegates recognized the valuable nature of diamonds
- Necessary procedures came into formation
- The KCPS involved a system certifying that diamonds came from authorized sellers
- Sellers caught selling diamonds without certification will face court charges
- Non-declaration of certification of exported diamonds will lead to punishment under the laws of destination nations
- Implementation of KCPS enabled the revenues of diamond-producing nations to rise, particularly those in Africa
- KCPS effectively deterred most blood diamond trade activities
- National economies of diamond-producing nations rose rapidly due to the KCPS
- The implementation of KCPS did not guarantee instant success in its goals
- Certification scheme was not able to trace roots of the blood diamond trade
- Corruption stands as the strongest problem in implementation
IV. Synthesis
V. Conclusion
Works Cited
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