Belgian Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Adopts Resolution on Kimberley Process

On January 16, at the initiative of PN member Georges Dallemagne, the Belgian House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee adopted a resolution on supporting the Kimberley Process.

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme ("KPCS") was created by the United Nations General Assembly and imposes extensive requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ‘conflict-free’ and prevent 'conflict diamonds' from entering the legitimate trade.

Rough diamonds can only be imported or exported if they are accompanied by a valid Kimberley Process Certificate ("KP Certificate").  The import into and export from the EU of rough diamonds is only allowed between countries that participate in the KPCS.

The resolution invites the Belgian federal government to ask the European Commission to consider the possibility to cross-check and compare the data of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme with those from the voluntary Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), in order to better identify potential smuggling and fraud.

In Belgium, 34 000 persons work in the diamond sector that represents 5% of the country’s exports. “Antwerp processes 85% of rough diamonds in the world”, says PN members Georges Dallemagne. Therefore, "Belgium is probably the country with the biggest interest in saving the Kimberley Process and in breaking the link between serious human rights violations and diamond trade”, he says.

For more information in French, please click here.

For an OpEd by PN member Georges Dallemagne on calling to save the Kimberley Process [in French], please click here.

Photo by mattshonfeld.