On March 16th, the KP Civil Society Coalition, in collaboration with Christina T. Miller Consulting, held a first webinar as part of its ‘We Need To Talk About Diamonds’ campaign. This first in a series of virtual events was aimed at surfacing the experiences of communities living in diamond mining areas with members of the jewelry industry.
The webinar included sobering testimonies by Ibrahim, a community member affected by industrial diamond mining in Sierra Leone, and Farai, an activist from Zimbabwe, who both highlighted how diamond mining continues to cause conflict in their countries. Saskia, a responsible jeweler from Belgium, explained that while these abuses are unacceptable for her customers, she has no means to assure them that their purchase is not associated with such human rights violations. The session moreover provided a rare occasion for direct engagement between an affected African community member and industry leaders from the Responsible Jewelry Council and the World Diamond Council.
You can find key quotes from the session below and watch the recording here:
The huge interest in this session and the numerous questions from industry members, highlighted the momentum to continue this important discussion. It also pointed to clear need to start identifying solutions to the many problems that were flagged. The KP CSC is happy to announce that this is just the start of this conversation, and will provide updates on the next steps very soon.
If you were not registered for the webinar and would like to stay tuned, please send an e-mail to info@kpcivilsociety.org.
