Recognizing the strength of the Kimberley Process but also its limitations, and consequently industry’s obligations

(worlddiamondcouncil.org) - In an article published in the August edition of Rapaport Magazine and posted on August 25, 2021, on the publication’s website, entitled “Atrocities Haunt Zimbabwe’s Diamond Fields,” Farai Maguwu, a courageous civil society leader in Zimbabwe, who is the founding director of that country’s Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), writes of the plight of artisanal miners in the Marange diamond fields. I have no intention of disputing the details that Mr. Maguwu lists in his article. He is intimately aware of the facts on the ground and has eyewitness testimony from artisanal miners living and working in the Marange region. His account alleges human rights violations and instances of bribery and extortion on the part of both state and private security officials at the site. What I would like to address is the role, or lack thereof, of the Kimberley Process in addressing the situation in Zimbabwe. In providing a subhead to Mr. Maguwu’s article, the Rapaport editors wrote that the KP “continues to greenwash [Zimbabwe’s] conflict diamonds.” I understand their sentiment, but I think they inadvertently are assigning the KP powers that it currently does not have. For there lies the problem.