Here's a case study in the dysfunctional behaviour of the sustainability industry: blood diamonds. It's an issue where, unlike many grey areas in the sustainable development debate, there are clear rights and wrongs. And now this: Global Witness is withdrawing from the Kimberley Process, the weak mechanism responsible for international policing of the diamond trade to prevent the sale of blood diamonds.
Why?
"Global Witness had expressed concerns about how the Kimberley Process was operating for some time; it said the final straw was the decision last month to allow Zimbabwe to export diamonds from the Marange fields, where there have been reports of widespread human rights abuses by government security forces."
Right, because the process was simply that - a process, and one that wasn't close to effecting change.
But it wouldn't be a case study if Global Witness didn't get taken to task over its lack of willingness to be a team player, would it? For that quote we go to another dysfunctional intergovernmental body:
"Michael Mann, a spokesman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, wrote in an e-mail on Monday that the Kimberley Process 'may not be a perfect instrument, but it is the best we have, and therefore all parties, including civil society, should work to make it effective.'"
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