Image credit: Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition
The Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition (KPCSC) has launched a new campaign, 'Conflict diamonds are real, real talk' in a bid to expose the existence of conflict diamonds.
Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), which is part of the KPCSC, said the coalition had been in the past months working on a video to highlight that conflict diamonds are not a thing of the past.The video shows jewellers the testimonies of community members from Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, who allegedly suffer the consequences of irresponsible diamond mining.
"Progress, Héritier and Ibrahim were brave to share their story, but they are far from the only ones," said CNRG.
"Tens of thousands of villagers in diamond mining areas across the globe continue to live with conflict today. For them, diamonds are no symbol of love, but harm to life and livelihood."
It said the video seeks to make a connection between mine and market, as they believe mining communities and retailers share many similar interests but know little about each other's realities.
"We, therefore, want to link this video with a series [of] virtual events bringing both ends of the diamond supply chain together," said CNRG.
"In this manner, we aim to develop a new, unified voice in the conversation around responsible sourcing of diamonds. We believe that jointly, retailers and mining communities can have stronger leverage over the industry and governmental actors that have set the seemingly intractable rules of the game."
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
