The World Diamond Council is an organization representing the entire diamond value chain including representatives from
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
mining, manufacturing, trading and retail. The council was established in July 2000. The purpose was to create a system to keep the supply chain of diamonds as free as possible from
conflict diamond
''Blood Diamond'' is a 2006 American political war action thriller film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Hounsou. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds mi ...
s.
In December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution supporting the creation of an international certification scheme for rough diamonds. By November 2002, negotiations between governments, the international diamond industry and civil society organisations resulted in the creation of the
Kimberley Process Certification Scheme
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is the process established in 2003 to prevent "conflict diamonds" from entering the mainstream rough diamond market by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/56 following recommendations in ...
(KPCS). The KPCS document sets out the requirements for controlling rough diamond production and trade. The KPCS entered into force in 2003, when participating countries started to implement its rules.
The KPCS is credited as being instrumental toward dramatically reducing “conflict diamonds” to less than 1% of the world's diamond production today.
The World Diamond Council has representation on all the Kimberley Process's
working groups
A working group, or working party, is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. The groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdis ...
and is influential in determining its implementation and future reform.
The council was set up in July 2000 in Antwerp, Belgium after a joint meeting of the
World Federation of Diamond Bourses
The World Federation of Diamond Bourses, founded in 1947, was created to provide bourses trading in rough and polished diamonds and precious stones with a common set of trading practices. It is composed of 30 member diamond bourses. Their headqua ...
(WFDB), representing all the world's significant diamond trading centres, and the
International Diamond Manufacturers Association
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
(IDMA), representing significant manufacturers. The founding president was
Eli Izhakoff
Eli Izhakoff is an American businessman in the international diamond and jewelry industry, filling a variety of public positions since 1979.
Early career
A member of a family that pioneered the diamond industry both in the United States and Isr ...
, who served in the position until July 2013.
Charter members are the WFDB, the IDMA and
International Confederation of Jewellers
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
(CIBJO).
The council, headquartered in the US, is currently led by President Edward Asscher from Amsterdam, Netherlands.
See also
*
Diamond (gemstone)
Diamond ''adámas'', meaning "unbreakable", "proper", or "unalterable" is one of the best-known and most sought-after gemstones. They have been used as decorative items since ancient times.
The hardness of diamond and its high dispersion of li ...
References
External links
* {{Official, http://www.worlddiamondcouncil.org/
diamondfacts.orgThe fifth annual meeting of the World Diamond Councilwfdb.com(
PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
)
Blood diamonds