Research Reports

The Intermediaries: Traders Who Threaten the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Efforts for Conflict-Free Gold

September 2020

IMPACT documents how registered traders and exporters in DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda provide a sheen of legality by declaring a small percentage of their gold exports while pocketing massive profits from the illicit trade. They thwart attempts to disrupt their scheme by reconfiguring their operations across the region when necessary or by creating phantom entities.

From Conflict to Illicit: Mapping the Diamond Trade from Central African Republic to Cameroon

December 2016

Partnership Africa Canada investigates how conflict diamonds from the Central African Republic are entering international markets through Cameroon. The report details how Cameroon's failure to implement internal controls required by the Kimberley Process has led to smuggling of diamonds from CAR, corruption among officials charged with verifying origins of diamonds, and large shipments of embargoed conflict diamonds passing through Cameroon's transit hubs undeclared.

Women in the Artisanal Gold Mining Sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo

November 2014

Key findings from field research aimed at understanding the roles women play in artisanal gold mining in Democratic Republic of Congo. The research seeks to identify how the informal nature of the gold trade amplifies women’s vulnerabilities, as well as how the introductions of formalization and certification mechanisms could either present new opportunities or further contribute to their marginalization.

Reap What You Sow: Greed and Corruption in Zimbabwe’s Marange Diamond Fields

November 2012

The third investigation by PAC into illicit activity in Zimbabwe’s diamond sector, this report focusses on ongoing trade irregularities, the lack of transparency of diamond revenues, and examines ways ZANU officials and the global diamond industry have colluded to pull off the biggest plunder of diamonds since Cecil Rhodes. It also examines the various revenue streams of Zimbabwe’s Minister of Mines and concludes he is utilizing monies and assets divorced from his ministerial salary and known business entities. The report offers policy suggestions and recommendations that would improve the management and public beneficiation of Zimbabwe’s diamond revenues.

Taming the Resource Curse: Implementing the ICGLR Certification Mechanism for Conflict-prone Minerals

May 2011

This report prepared by PAC for the ICGLR and released in March 2011, describes the regional certification mechanism (RCM) for tracking high value and conflict prone minerals in Africa’s Great Lakes region. Based on lessons learned from other certification mechanisms, particularly the Kimberley Process, it promotes key principles that will make for a stronger and more effective regulatory scheme for four minerals—namely gold, coltan, tungsten and tin.

Diamonds Without Borders: An Assessment of the Challenges of Implementing and Enforcing the KP Certification Scheme

November 2010

In 2010, Israel (the Chair of the KPCS) prioritized strengthening KPCS efforts to combat diamond smuggling. In support of this priority, PAC worked with Israel, Canada and the United States to conduct multi-stakeholder consultations in four West African countries and to organize an Enforcement Seminar during the KPCS Intersessional in Tel Aviv (June 2010). The results of these activities can be found in this report on diamond smuggling, which was presented to the KPCS Plenary in November 2010. Efforts to combat smuggling will continue to be a priority for PAC and the KPCS in 2011.

Diamonds and Clubs: The Militarized Control of Diamonds and Power in Zimbabwe

June 2010

Zimbabwe's contested diamond fields is about many things: smuggling and frontier hucksterism; a scramble fuelled by raw economic desperation and unfathomable greed; and heart-wrenching cases of government-sponsored repression and human rights violations. It's a story about political intrigue, ambition and a complete disregard for decency or the rule of law. It is also a story of how the Kimberley Process - the international initiative created to ensure that the trade in diamonds does not fund violence and civil war - has lost its way.

Zimbabwe, Diamonds and the Wrong Side of History

March 2009

This report describes the role of diamonds in the Zimbabwean economy and their place in the country's increasingly repressive governance. It describes growing evidence of smuggling, the militarization of diamond resources and the killing of dozens of unarmed diamond diggers by the armed forces of Zimbabwe. The report describes the lacklustre role in all of this played by the Kimberley Process, and it asks the United Nations Security Council to step in.

Loupe Holes: Illicit Diamonds in the Kimberley Process

November 2008

As the Kimberley Process (KP) rough diamond certification scheme’s sixth year drew to a close at the end of 2008, the trafficking in conflict and illicit stones looked more like a dangerous rule than an exception. In a joint report issued before the November 2008 KP Plenary Meeting in New Delhi, Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada warned that the illicit trade in rough diamonds is one of the greatest threats facing the Kimberley Process. The report called for specific action by the Kimberley Process and the 76 governments that have agreed to its minimum standards.

Land Grabbing and Land Reform: Diamonds, Rubber and Forests in the New Liberia

July 2007

This report, co-published by PAC and Green Advocates in Monrovia, describes Liberia’s timber, rubber and diamond sectors. It lays out what must be done by the Liberian government and civil society, as well as the donor agencies, companies and NGOs that work there, to make certain that there is no return to the old pre-war ways of doing things, and to ensure that the country’s natural resources are used for the benefit of all Liberians, now and in the future.

The Lost World: Diamond Mining and Smuggling in Venezuela

November 2006

This report on the diamond mining industry of Venezuela documents how and why Venezuela’s diamonds – an industry that produces from 150,000 to 200,000 carats per year, worth as much as US$20 million annually – have been driven underground. PAC further details the inability of Venezuela’s Ministry of Basic Industry and Mining (Miban) to control the diamond trade, officially ignoring the problem, while official diamond exports dwindled to nothing.

Killing Kimberley? Conflict Diamonds and Paper Tigers

November 2006

This report was written in advance of the November 2006 Kimberley annual meeting in Gaborone Botswana, to help convince governments and industry that change was needed. It worked. The paper, however, remains unchanged for the historical record, with the exception of Page 1, which explains briefly how almost everything demanded in Killing Kimberley? was accepted by industry and the 70-odd governments represented at the meeting.

Fugitives and Phantoms: The Diamond Exporters of Brazil

March 2006

Brazil is one of the oldest diamond producing countries in the world, but nobody can say where half of the diamonds it exports have been mined, and government certificates accompanying fully one quarter of Brazilian exports are fraudulent. The PAC report demonstrates that Brazil’s diamond sector is in deep crisis, a crisis that affects the credibility of the newly-minted global system to block trade in the conflict diamonds that fuelled four of Africa’s most horrific wars. Also available in Portuguese.

Implementing the Kimberley Process: 5 years how effective is the Kimberley Process and what more needs to be done?

June 2005

Five years after its creation the Kimberley Process, the international diamond certification scheme, is still having difficulty stopping conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate trade. Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada are urging that more must be done to ensure that the process works effectively and is a credible mechanism that will prevent diamonds from ever again fuelling conflict. Diamonds continue to fuel conflict in eastern DRC and are also playing a role in the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire, two countries participating in the Kimberley Process.

The Failure of Good Intentions

May 2005

This report is a detective story. It is about fraud and theft and murder, and good intentions gone wrong. Brazil has a long history of diamond production, and is the largest diamond producing country in South America. Brazilian diamonds have attracted a wide variety of exploration and mining firms, as well as the usual complement of international buyers and soldiers of fortune. The massacre of 29 diamond diggers on the Roosevelt Indian Reserve in the remote Rondônia rainforest in 2004 attracted international media attention and demonstrated that conflict diamonds are by no means restricted to Africa. Also available in Portuguese.

Why Gender Still Matters: Sexual violence and the need to confront militarized masculinity

December 2004

The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was marked by almost unimaginable atrocities, including millions killed and displaced in a war that seven nations have participated in. Most horrifically, sexual assault became a major part of the violence with rape being so systematic and brutal that doctors in the DRC are now classifying wounds inflicted by rapists as combat injuries. This report delves into the gendered dimensions of war in the DRC.

Rich Man, Poor Man – Development Diamonds and Poverty Diamonds: The Potential for Change in the Artisanal Alluvial Diamond Fields of Africa

October 2004

Rich Man Poor Man reports on months of research in the diamond fields of Sierra Leone, Angola and the Congo. There, alluvial diamonds represent the primary source of income for more than one million freelance diggers and their families. On average, however, they earn only a dollar a day. Working conditions are unhealthy and dangerous; cheating, theft and smuggling are rampant.

The Key to Kimberley: Internal Diamond Controls - Seven Case Studies

October 2004

The report examines the implementation of new control systems in Belgium, Britain, the United States, Canada, Angola, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The report recognizes the strengths of the Belgian system if implemented fully but is critical of US, British and Canadian regulations because of weak or non-existent government audits of companies dealing with diamonds. The report is much more critical of controls in the Congo and Angola, however. The report recommends much tougher oversight if illicit diamonds are to be excluded from the legitimate diamond trade.