India to host Kimberley Process meeting

India is hosting the 5th Intersessional meeting of the Kimberley Process from 17 to 19 June 2008 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. India hopes that delegates from about 35 countries will be attending the meeting and participate in the various joint sessions to take stock of the progress made in implementation of Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme (KPCS) and discuss ways to strengthen the Scheme.

All the Working Groups of KPCS meet at the Intersessional meeting to take a half-yearly stock of the implementation of the Scheme and for planning for the year ahead.

The Intersessional is structured around working group meetings and does the background work for the decisions to be taken in the Plenary.

India is sixth in succession to hold the Chair of KPCS after South Africa, Canada, Russian Federation, Botswana and European Commission. India, had assumed the chair of the Kimberley KPCS in the beginning of this year for one calendar year. Namibia is the Vice Chair for 2008.

Under the aegis of United Nations, KPCS is a joint Government, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds – rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments.

KPCS imposes extensive requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ‘conflict-free’. As of June 2008, KPCS has 48 members, representing 74 countries (with the European Community and its Member States counted as an individual participant).

Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was adopted in a Ministerial meeting held at Interlaken, Switzerland, on 5th November, 2002. India is a signatory to the Interlaken Declaration and is a founder member of KPCS.

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