Consensus paralysis: KP faces rocky road to reforms
Monday, July 04, 2022 | 760 Views |

Unimpressed: Yoboue had strong words for the Kimberley Process’ closing ceremony PIC: KPCS.ORG
The Kimberley Process, a United Nations’ backed supranational group that has fought conflict diamonds for nearly two decades, is stuck in a consensus paralysis that has led observers to question its relevance in keeping the global diamond industry clean.
Ahead of the week-long Kasane meeting, the United States, European Union (EU), Ukraine, and a leading non-governmental organisation had proposed including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the agenda, a move blocked by Moscow, Belarus and, reportedly, the Central African Republic. While the West has sanctioned Russian rough diamonds since that country invaded Ukraine in February, the stones are still flowing through the global diamond industry through Russo-neutral cutting and polishing centres such as India and China.
That is indeed a welcome development, especially looking at the fact that the manual way of doing things is slowly disappearing and competency in the use of computers and other digital gadgets has become a must.The simple way of looking at it is just an example that almost all companies have gone completely digital and school leavers will be better placed after leaving school, because they will already be familiar with the use of computers.The...