A BLUNT TOOL FOR A DELICATE TASK - THE KIMBERLEY PROCESS

4 THE EVOLVING ROLE OF DIAMONDS IN THE CAR CONFLICT The genesis of the current conflict in the CAR, in the late 1990s and 2000s, emerged at a time of heightened discourse around ‘conflict minerals’, and increasing international pressure to prevent armed groups from using natural resources to finance themselves.23 The CAR was a prescient example of this concern, given armed groups’ widespread use o. [...] The resolution noted that international diamond shipments from the CAR had taken place during the temporary suspension, and thus the situation in the CAR threatened ‘the integrity and credibility of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme’.38 The UN implemented its targeted sanctions regime and mandated a Panel of Experts, whose reports have made significant contributions to the knowledge base. [...] Licit diamond exports decrease and the illicit market share grows The suspension of the CAR from the Kimberley Process, followed by the gradual imposition of new Kimberley Process protocols in 2015 to allow partial trading in diamonds, has increased the complexity of the licit export system. [...] As previously mentioned, formal exports from the compliant sub-prefectures have increased in value each year since 2016 and have, according to data provided by the CAR Ministry of Mines and Geology, grown tenfold in terms of the number of carats exported between 2016 and 2022.126 The suspension lifting, and the eventual delisting, of the buying house Badica in 2021 has allowed for the redevelopmen. [...] The crisis of the Kimberley Process in the Central African 35 Republic, in The Political Economy of the Kimberley Process.