Never before has there been such a great need for a sensible, auditable and cost effective series of procedures for tracking and identifying diamonds from rough to polished to jewelry, as right now.

Global transparency has provided a window into the good, bad and ugly of just about every major industry operating in almost every country.  Illuminating a brighter light on despots, dictators and terrorists, is only the beginning.  The internet, 24/7 news cycles and non-governmental organizations like Global Witness and Amnesty International have documented the utter greed and brutality that have become associated with the mining of diamonds in numerous African and South American countries, like Venezuela, Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivorie and Zimbabwe.

Human Rights and Moral Integrity are the most rare and precious of all assets in most African countries.  Historically, these attributes are especially rare in the African diamond trade.

The brutality of the civil war waged in Sierra Leone in the 1990’s, fueled by trade in diamonds did not escape notice of human rights groups who smeared the bloodstained images on cable networks initially, and later on the worldwide web . . . . children bearing rifles and machetes, maiming and killing their neighbors at the behest of the warlords.

In May of 2000, Global Witness, a human rights, non-governmental organization (NGO) based in London, produced a working document entitled “Conflict Diamonds – Possibilities for the Identification, Certification and Control of Diamonds”.  The scope of the report was summed up in the first paragraph, as stated on page 1 . . . “This report seeks to examine the possibilities for controlling the entry of conflict diamonds into the legitimate diamond industry and to establish a basis of understanding about whether diamonds can be identified by country of origin.”

In the same report, page 1, paragraph 5, “It is clear that there is a need to create a ‘chain of custody’ within the diamond trade – an auditable trail from the mine to the consumer that can work with existing structure and patterns of trade.”

The report goes on to say that “since 1998 there has been a shift in world opinion on the issue of conflict diamonds, which in itself is a new term.  In fact, Hollywood began casting a blockbuster movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Garner, for the 2006 movie Blood Diamond”.

Midway between the Global Witness report and the opening of the movie Blood Diamond, the diamond industry had scrambled to put together a system of warranties and a government sanctioned plan called the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.   In short, all rough diamonds were always to be listed on a KP Certificate in order to be exported from their country of origin, and each subsequent country until the rough diamonds reached the factory and were cut and polished.  It should be noted here that India cuts over 90% of the world supply of rough diamonds, by carats.   China, Thailand and Indonesia cut the majority of the balance, by carats, and Belgium, Israel, South Africa, United States and several other location cut the balance. 

In the period of time between 2003 and present day, there have been numerous documented reports by Global Witness and others where diamonds were being smuggled out of producing countries and into other countries by both members of the KP alliance, and elsewhere.

In 2009, Ian Smillie, founding member and director of the NGO, Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), resigned after declaring they could no longer work under the pretense that “failure is success”.

On December 7, 2011, Global Witness withdrew from participation in the KPCS, stating “KP has ultimately failed to stem the flow of blood diamonds”.

As mentioned throughout the “Conflict Diamonds” report, Global Witness studied and reported on, the only existing “chain of custody” process for polished diamonds which was being used by the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) in Canada.  On page 23 of their report, Global Witness detailed a “Case Study: Northwest Territories Programme – The First Chain of Custody For The Diamond Industry”.  The study was for the Ekati Mine which had been in production since October 1998 in NWT.  The largest stakeholder in the Ekati Mine is BHP.  GW further states the “GNWT describes tracking diamonds through an auditing and monitoring system as a relatively simple process”.  To protect the Canadian industry and the market for Canadian-produced diamonds, they developed a program through the collaboration of the GNWT, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Broken Hill Properties (BHP), Gemprint Corporation®, (then owned by a Canadian company, now located in New York and owned by the Palmieri Group), and the diamond manufacturers in NWT.