DIAMOND DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE INTERNATIONAL (DDII) AND RESPONSIBLE JEWELLERY COUNCIL (RJC) ANNOUNCE WORKING RELATIONSHIP ON ARTISANAL DIAMOND PRODUCTION.
DDI International and RJC today announced they had agreed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work cooperatively on advancing their shared objectives. These objectives include: improving social, environmental, labour practices and good governance in the artisanal diamond mining sector; enhanced relationships between large-scale and artisanal diamond mining; and increasing market access for jewellery raw materials produced by artisanal diamond mining communities.
The MOU will formalize DDII’s and RJC’s collaboration on:
Standards Harmonisation: DDII and RJC will collaborate to ensure the standards and modalities of their respective certification initiatives are mutually supportive. To that end, RJC will provide input through membership of DDII’s Advisory Group and DDII will provide input through membership of RJC’s Consultative Panel, and subsequently through the RJC Standards Committee from 2012 onwards. DDII and RJC will collaborate to strengthen synergies between the RJC certification system and the Development Diamond Standards certification system, which DDII is developing.
Develop Projects to support artisanal diamond miners: DDII and RJC will collaborate to develop projects to improve social, environmental, and labour practices, and good governance in artisanal diamond mining. DDII and RJC will collaborate to recruit private, governmental and intergovernmental sponsors to fund such projects. DDII and RJC will collaborate to establish the modalities and financing of a support fund to assist artisanal diamond miners make the transition to become “formalised” and certified.
Industry Outreach: DDII and RJC will collaborate to increase market awareness and support for jewellery raw materials sourced from well-managed artisanal diamond mining.
DDII’s Executive Director, Dorothée Gizenga said, “Worldwide, some 1.5 million individuals are artisanal diamond miners. They and their families will benefit from the improved working conditions and standards that are DDII’s objectives, objectives that will be enhanced by our collaboration with the Responsible Jewellery Council.”
”RJC is delighted to formalise the relationship between our two organisations. By working together, DDII and RJC will reinforce our efforts to improve responsible business practices throughout the jewellery supply chain and enhance the lives of artisanal diamond miners and their communities,” said Michael Rae, RJC’s Chief Executive Officer.
About DDII
The Diamond Development Initiative International (DDI International) is a registered charity and international non-profit organization incorporated in the District of Columbia (U.S.). DDII’s Executive Office is located in Ottawa, ON, Canada.
The Mission of DDII is to gather all interested parties into a process that will address, in a comprehensive way, the political, social and economic challenges facing the artisanal diamond mining sector in order to optimize the beneficial development impact of artisanal diamond mining to miners and their communities within the countries in which the diamonds are mined. DDI is envisaged as the centre of an organization that will encourage affiliates in different countries where there is interest in its aims and objectives. These may, in time, include existing non-profit organizations, or they may be stand-alone affiliates operating exclusively under the DDI label. DDI will establish quality standards for all projects, publications and organizations working under the DDI name.
About RJC
The Responsible Jewellery Council is an international not-for-profit organisation bringing together more than 350 member companies committed to promoting responsible ethical, human rights, social and environmental practices in a transparent and accountable manner throughout the jewellery industry from mine to retail. Their commitment aims to reinforce consumer and stakeholder confidence in diamond, gold and platinum group metals jewellery products. The Council has developed the RJC Member Certification System, a certification system, which will apply to all Members’ businesses that contribute to the diamond, gold and platinum group metals jewellery supply chain. All Commercial Members of the RJC are required to be audited by accredited, third-party auditors to verify their conformance with the RJC’s Code of Practices and become certified under the RJC Member Certification System.
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