Kimberley Process Certification Scheme

In May 2000, governments and the diamond industry gathered at Kimberley, South Africa to come up a way to stop the conflict diamonds, or “blood diamonds” which aroused much attention at that time. The solution they put forward is the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to ensure that the purchases of diamonds in the participants do not contribute to fund violent conflicts and human rights abuses in their countries of origin.
The scheme is of good implication but may not achieve its goal efficiently due to some of the uncontrollable economic factors.
It is true that diamonds producer countries, especially those suffering rebellions, are much more willing to be involved in this scheme. The scheme helps to enhance the international recognition to the governments in these riotous countries. The goal to prevent those conflict diamonds from entering the mainstream diamond market will in principle help to weaken the financial support of the rebels.
However, the other side of the story may not be that encouraging. There may not be any incentive for importers to comply with the scheme. Actually, since the certification scheme is of “voluntary self-regulation”, the transparency and independent monitoring efforts can be questioned. Even if most of the governments participated in the Kimberley system try to comply with these rules, the lack of monitoring and inspections may still leave some loopholes for the black-market. Smugglers may still find ways to get their profit from these blood gems.