Russian sanctions unsettle diamond power politics

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, encompassing all major diamond producers in its membership of 82 countries and NGOs, was set up nearly 20 years ago to root out conflict diamonds from the global market.

In recent years, meetings of the organisation have featured fiery debates over broadening the definition of conflict diamonds to include vices such as human rights violations, among others. At present, the Kimberley Process (KP) maintains its original, broad definition of conflict diamonds as being “rough diamonds used to finance wars against governments”. In practice, however, the definition is limited to diamonds used by rebel groups to fight legitimate governments, a definition that has meant the KP’s focus has been on war torn Africa such as the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone.