The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme

In the late 1990s, a series of alarming reports from civil society groups set out the clear link between the global trade in rough diamonds and the prosecution and perpetuation of brutal civil wars in countries such as Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Sierra Leone (Global Witness 1998). In 1999, several governments—led by the three main diamond-producing countries in Africa (Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa) and the three leading consumers and marketers of diamonds (Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the United States)—came together to craft a response. One of the first meetings was held in the South African diamond-mining town of Kimberley; what became known as the Kimberley Process (KP) eventually embraced many more governments, as well as industry and civil society. The objective of the KP was to break the link between diamonds and civil war, and the model that was chosen—the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS)—was signed in 2003, after three years of negotiation. ¹