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LACK OF UNIFORMITY OF KIMBERLEY PROCESS CERTIFICATES A RESULT OF HISTORY AND ‘GHOSTS OF THE KIMBERLEY PROCESS’

 

The evolution of Kimberley Process certificates, the documents issued by government-mandated authorities in an exporting country, attesting to the fact that a shipment of rough diamonds have not been associated with conflict, has created a situation whereby one country’s version is often markedly different from that of another.

It is not a situation that always appreciated by diamond traders, forwarders, customs agents and law enforcement professionals, who often have complained that the lack of standardization makes doing their job more difficult.  

The anomaly was not due to any oversight or administrative mix-up. “It was the result of how the Kimberley Process came together and how some old ghosts from the past still haunt us,” writes Mark Van Bockstael, the Chair of the Kimberley Process’s Working Group of Diamond Experts and Chairman of the World Diamond Council’s Technical Committee, in his “Digging Down into the Kimberley Process” column in most recent WDC newsletter.

CERTIFICATES OF ORIGIN PREDATE THE KP

Government-issued certificates for rough diamond shipments actually precede the Kimberley Process, and go right back to the very first embargo associated with conflict diamonds, which was imposed by the United Nations Security Council in June 1998. It involved stones being traded by rebels in Angola, and ruled that the only rough diamonds eligible for export from the country were those carrying an official Certificate of Origin issued by the Angolan government, verifying that they were sourced in areas under its control.

Two years later, a second UN Security Council rough diamond embargo was approved, this time covering goods traded by rebel forces in Sierra Leone. It mirrored in the first embargo, this time referring to a Sierra Leonean Certificate of Origin.

By mid-2002, six months before the launch of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme at the start of the following year, the governments of four diamond-producing countries were issuing Certificates of Origin with each legal shipment of rough diamonds – Angola, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). All were in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions, or as follow-up to recommendations from the relevant UN Panel of Experts.

Van Bockstael, who was employed by Antwerp’s Diamond High Council (HRD) at the time, the forerunner to today’s Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC), plated a key role in designing the certificate of origin regimes.

Mark Van Bockstael, the Chair of the Kimberley Process’s Working Group of Diamond Experts and Chairman of the World Diamond Council’s Technical Committee.

The first Certificate of Origin issued by the Angola government wasn’t much more than a simple black-and-white photo-copied form, without any security features. But when UN Security Council Resolution 1306 was passed in July 2000, requiring Certificates of Origin for all legal exports of conflict-free diamonds from Sierra Leone, a tamper-resistant Certificate of Origin from that country was also unveiled. In addition to an array of physical security features, it also included an “Import Confirmation,” which required the authorities in the importing country to confirm receipt of the merchandise, listing details such as certificate number, weight and value.

The Sierra Leonean document and its digital copy were thoroughly examined for security flaws by the U.S. Secret Service, which reported on it during the White House Diamond Conference on January 11, 2001. It passed with flying colors.

The Sierra Leonean Certificate of Origin, which became the gold standard for Kimberley Process certificates.

A PROLIFERATION OF CERTIFYING COUNTRIES

From 2000 to 2002, during the negotiation process leading up to the launch of the KPCS, a variety of different certificate formats were created, Van Bockstael recounts.

The lack of uniformity, he explains, can be traced to Resolution 55/56, passed by the UN General Assembly in 2000, which provided the mandate for the Kimberley Process. It was deliberately vague, stating simply that “the international community develop detailed proposals for a simple and workable international certification scheme for rough diamonds based primarily on national certification schemes and on internationally agreed minimum standards…”

The UN resolution did not spell out how the various members of the certification scheme – the KP Participants – may coordinate their systems with one another, and certainly did not prescribe homogenous certificate formats.

With the launch of the certification made things more complicated. The KPCS required every KP-member country to issue certificates for conflict-free rough diamonds exported from their territory. Up until then only diamond-mining countries had been issuing certificates. Now, nations like Belgium, Israel, India, China and the United States, all of which register sizeable rough diamond exports but are essentially through stations, would now be required their own documentation.

During the last negotiation meeting in Ottawa, Cana, in early 2002, a last-ditch effort was made to bring some commonality to format and layout – the look-and-feel – of Kimberley Process Certificates. Unfortunately, Van Bockstael notes, it was unsuccessful, resulting in the wide array of certificates that exists today.

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