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16 Loy. U. Chi. Int'l L. Rev. 115 (2020)
The Kimberley Process' Legacy: How the 2000 Certification Process for Conflict-Free Diamonds Can Help Solve Contemporary Human Rights Violations within the Cobalt & Coltan Mining Industries

handle is hein.journals/intnlwrv16 and id is 123 raw text is: THE KIIBERLEY PROCESS' LEGACY: How THE 2000 CERTIFICATION PROCESS FOR CONFLICT-FREE DIAMoNDS CAN HELP SOLVE CONTEMPORARY HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS WITHIN THE COBALT & COLTAN MINING INDUSTRIES Claire Henleben I. Introduction One might speculate that a country rich in natural resources - such as oil, timber, or minerals - would be well off and that its people would prosper given the country's wealth. However, this is not the reality in many countries where these riches abound; the resource curse has cast its shadow over regions which otherwise should have profited from their natural resources.' To blame for this unexpected misfortune is often the same set of circumstances: civil war and gov- ernment overthrow coupled with the exploitation of a vulnerable population.2 This problem resurges repeatedly in countries which meet these circumstances and where the population extracts a material of value from the earth.3 This com- ment seeks to highlight past iterations of this phenomenon, analyze where and how prior solutions have gone wrong or made headway, and finally, to apply those solutions to current resource crises in need of an effective solution. Although historical precedent details generations of the exploitation of natural resource mining by those waging war in developing nations, the issue did not gain international attention or outrage until the 1990s and the beginnings of civil war in Sierra Leone and Angola.4 Sierra Leone, as a country affected by the so- named resource curse, is rich in natural diamond stores beneath its soil, and yet is not itself a wealthy nation.5 Exploitation of these diamond reserves first material- ized in 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) launched its violent campaign to overthrow the Sierra Leonean government.6 The RUF, in need of funding for its fast-growing regime, turned to the country's diamonds as a read- I Ingrid J. Tamm, Dangerous Appetites: Human Rights Activism and Conflict Commodities, 26 Hum. RTS. Q. 687-704 (2004); Maarten Voors, Resource and Governance in Sierra Leone's Civil War, 53 J. OF DEV. STUD. 278, 280 (016). 2 Katharina Wick & Erwin Bulte, The Curse of Natural Resources, I ANN. REV. OF RESOURCE EcON. 139, 140-143 (009). 3 Duncan Brack, The Growth and Control of International Environmental Crime, 112 ENV. HEALTH PERSP. No. 2 A80-81 (2004). 4 Philippe Le Billon, Diamond Wars? Conflict Diamonds and Geographies of Resource Wars, 98 ANNALS OF THE Ass'N OF Am. GEOGRAPHERS 98:2, 345-72 (2008). 5 Sigismond A. Wilson, Sierra Leone's Illicit Diamonds: The Challenges and the Way Forward, 76 GEOJOURNAL 191-212 (2011). 6 Id. Volume 16, Issue 1 Loyola University Chicago International Law Review 115

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