Archive for January, 2007
Conflict Diamonds Press Briefing
by Admin on January 15th, 2007
Sue Saarnio, Special Advisor for Conflict Diamonds; Cecilia Gardner, General
Counsel, U.S. Kimberley Process Authority
Foreign Press Center Briefing
Washington, DC; New York, New York
MODERATOR: Well, good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Foreign Press Center. Today’s briefing will address the issue of conflict diamonds and how the United States and 70 other countries around the world are working via the Kimberley Process to monitor and control trade in rough diamonds.
‘Blood Diamonds’ at the United Nations
by Admin on January 14th, 2007
Hollywood and United Nations agenda converge in the film “Blood Diamonds”, which depicts how the world’s most precious stone fuelled the conflict in Sierra Leone, leading to civil war in the 1990s, and portrays child soldiers and other human rights abuses. A panel discussion following the screening of the film at UN Headquarters brought together experts on diamonds and conflict, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), diplomats, and one of the film’s leading actors.
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| Djimon Hounsou, a leading actor in the film (left) and Radhika Coomaraswarmy, Special Advisor to the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict (right), at the discussion following the screening of “Blood Diamonds”. UN photo |
No blood diamonds coming to Guyana
by Admin on January 10th, 2007
Guyana has been vigilant with the trade of its diamonds long before the advent of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KP-CS), Acting Commissioner of Mines William Woolford has said.
And he insists that there is no indication that blood diamonds are coming to Guyana from any of the conflict diamonds reputed African nations like Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo or the Ivory Coast. More
Ghana sets Kimberley diamond deadline
by Admin on January 10th, 2007
WINDHOEK (Mineweb.com) –Ghana has set the deadline of March as the month in which it will pass all the requirements of the Kimberley Process to clear its name from the list of countries involved in illegal trade in diamonds coming from conflict regions, reported Ghana News Agency this week.
The country was accused in October 2006 of certifying rough diamonds from neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire as Kimberley Process compliant. More
Blood diamonds: A trickle or a river?
by Admin on January 3rd, 2007
What a fuss a number can make — one little number. And here it is: Fewer than 1 percent of diamonds on the market today are “conflict diamonds.'’
The number seems surprising, considering all the attention focused on the gems since the film “Blood Diamond'’ came out this month. For if that 1 percent is true, it means 99 percent of the world’s diamonds are conflict-free, which certainly seems to throw a bucket of cold water on the movement against conflict diamonds. More
The Diamond Development Initiative
by Admin on January 3rd, 2007
The Diamond Development Initiative aims to gather all interested parties into a process that will address, in a comprehensive way, the political, social and economic challenges facing the artisanal diamond mining sector in order to optimize the beneficial development impact of artisanal diamond mining to miners and their communities within the countries in which the diamonds are mined. More
