Clean Diamond Act @ Jewel Info 4 UBy: Nandita Ray
The Clean Diamond Act is a measure aimed at strengthening the Kimberley
Process Certification Process. Its goal is to help implement the KPSC
successfully and make certain that all signatories to this are executing the
process effectively. The international community hopes to eradicate the
infiltration of blood diamonds into clean or legitimate diamonds. Being the
largest consumer of diamonds and the world leader, the Clean Diamond Act,
empowers USA to oversee the implementation of this act.
This Act bans the inflow of rough diamonds from any country into USA unless
it implements the KPSC or a system of controls that is comparable to the
standards set by the UN and international community. Diamonds from the rebel
held countries like Angola, Sierra Leone, Congo and other African countries
that are involved in the mining and trading of rough diamonds. The sale of
these diamonds generate funds which help them to continue their illegal war
against elected governments and pursue terror subjecting innocent civilians
to human rights abuses. Rape, murder, amputation, drafting child soldiers
and driving people out of their country in thousands, is the subject of
international concern. Human right activists have played an important role
in bringing into international focus, this abuse of human rights and the
pathetic plight of the citizens of these countries. Al Qaida and other
terrorists groups also use these rough diamonds to spread terror and war. By
introducing this act, HR 1415, the sale of conflict diamonds in USA will
stop and thereby stalling the process of the illegal warfare in these
countries and protecting human rights. Passing the Act on 28th April 2003,
President Bush signaled the responsibility of supervising the implementation
of the Act under USA administration.
Clean Diamond Act - What it does?
What does this Act do? This Act (HR918) compels all countries trying to
sell diamonds in whatever state i.e. rough, cut or in form of jewelry, in
the USA, to have in motion a recognized International system of controls
that supervises the flow of rough diamonds within their jurisdiction.
This system is not enforced in countries that do not import rough diamonds
but mine their own under a legal government.
It requires the USA to import diamonds from a country that has implemented a
system of control on the export and import of rough diamonds.
This Act also bans Overseas Private Investments Corporations and the Export
/Import Bank of USA from dealing in any business enterprise that involves
mining, cutting, polishing or selling diamonds in a country that does not
apply a regulated system of controls in accordance with this Act.
Importers of cut diamonds and jewelry in the USA will have to conduct
business from those vendors or retailers who are from countries that have
the 'rough controls' in place.
Rough/ Internal Controls: - They are self imposed curbs or checks on the
production as well as selling of diamonds by each accredited government,
where diamond is naturally mined and cut.
The rightful government should make sure that there are no tainted (blood)
diamonds in the lot under production and sales. In order to control this
they should give license to miners and traders and should export their cargo
in tamper proof container and also have in place inter locking computerized
data system. This is important in order to keep a check on the goods as they
move all around the world and detect variations.
Constitute an Importing and Exporting Authority to oversee the controls,
collect and maintain the data regarding each consignment. This should
include exports, imports and production of diamonds.
To impose on the offending party penalties or criminal charges if need be.
They should keep a detailed information data base regarding all diamond
operations and operatives, with their names and addresses, and which should
to be refreshed regularly.
The government(s) should have a statistical data maintained, according to
accepted international standards.
Each participant should be ready for a review, periodically. They should
inform about problems that they might be facing and offer suggestions incase
needed.
It is hoped that eventually most countries in the world would have in place
regularized custom checks so that Blood Diamonds will be completely removed
from the flow of clean diamonds. The leading countries in diamond cutting
and polishing namely Israel, Belgium and India immediately enact these
'rough controls' as it goes a long way in starting this process of
eradicating tainted diamonds. Though it is not cent percent fool proof, yet
it is a huge concerted effort by all concerned parties.
The Clean Diamond Trade Act protects legitimate diamond merchants by safe
guarding the interests of diamond mining countries in South Africa, Botswana
and similar countries willing to apply the controls.
A survey conducted by the
Amnesty International Activists, revealed that: -
1. only 27 % of the shops were able to indicate and convince that they had a
system of controls in place to check the flow of tainted diamonds,
2. while 30% of the shops surveyed said that they had a policy but could not
show any copy of the certificate
3. on the matter of warranties only 13% of the shops provided one to
customers as a regular measure,
4. only 24% were aware of the Kimberley Certification Scheme,
5. while only 29% of those in knowledge of it understood its working
completely,
6. it was reported that 83% of customers did not ask about KPSC,
7. 110 shops refused to undertake the survey.
The survey was conducted in 50 cities in 18 states and 246 stores all over
the USA. While a study conducted by the 'Global Witness' in USA revealed
that many important retailers and Diamond merchants were not up to the mark
in implementing the 'basic measures of self regulation'. It was also deuced
that the World Diamond Council and its allied bodies were not fully
successful in monitoring or evaluating the working of the KPSC all over the
world. It was determined that a sizeable section of the World diamond
Industry must start taking the issue of blood diamonds seriously and
implement the controls quickly.
More Info
President Signs Clean Diamond Act
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