Angola Chairs KP Review Committee

Angola takes over Chair of

KP Review Committee from India

According to official version of Angola, Angola took over the chairmanship of the Kimberley Process Review and Reform Committee in Brussels, Belgium. The event took place during the XV plenary session of the Kimberley process certification system held, which coincided with the organization's 15th anniversary. 

At the official ceremony of the plenary, Didier Reynders, Deputy Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and European Affairs of Belgium, reiterated the European Union's commitment to the process of revising and reforming the KP in order to increase its efficiency and credibility as an instrument of the United Nations for conflict prevention related to the abuse of diamonds and systematic violations of human rights in communities and regions where diamonds are extracted.

Among the various subjects submitted to the plenary, topics such as the administrative decision to create the permanent secretariat and the decision to unify the nomenclature and terminology of diamonds were approved.

The extension of the definition of conflict diamonds, the review of the mechanism of review visits and the review of the document governing the Kimberley process certification system were postponed for the coming year.

Angola as deputy chair of the KP Review and Reform Committee replaces India chairing this committee and will be Canada Vice-Chair.

India will assume the rotating presidency of the Kimberley process certification scheme in January 2019. Russia and Botswana have been elected to joint vice-presidency from 2019 to 2020. The Angolan delegation was headed by the Secretary of State for Geology and Mines, Jânio Correia Victor, the National Coordinator of the National Commission for the Kimberley Process, Paulo Mvika, the administrator of Endiama, Osvaldo Van-Dunem, senior staff of the KP, Endiama, Sodiam and Catoca.