Several civil society coalition groups have released a statement, which asserts that the global diamond industry is still tainted by human rights abuses and conflict finance.
The national and international civil society organizations, which include Amnesty International, the Enough Project and International Peace Information Service, say they stand united in their efforts to break those links and to ensure that doing so is a central concern for governments and industry engaged in the sector.
They were critical of Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the Kimberley Process chair’s recent remarks at the opening session of the World Diamond Council held in Dubai, in which he criticized Alan Martin, the director of research at Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), for his refusal to appear at the meeting. The statement said that such an attitude only served to undermine one of the pillars of the KP’s tri-partite structure.
