IMPACT, formerly known as Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) until October 2017, is a non-governmental organization which attempts to control the sourcing of

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

s in regions of conflict and campaign against "

blood diamonds Blood diamonds (also called conflict diamonds, brown diamonds, hot diamonds, or red diamonds) are diamonds Diamond mining, mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, terrorism, or a warlord's activity ...

Zimbabwe

IMPACT claimed that around $2bn (£1.26bn) worth of

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

s was stolen by

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

's rulers, such as the military, police, and "ruling elite", saying that "The scale of illegality is mind-blowing". IMPACT also claimed that Robert Mugabe gained $2 billion from looting in the Marange diamond fields in 2012. IMPACT went on to say that "This shows Zimbabwe was wilfully in breach of the ... ban on Marange diamonds", following the leaking of a document from the Mineral Marketing Corporation, which detailed the proposed sale of $200 million worth of illegal diamonds through several Zimbabwe banks. This led to criticism from IMPACT, and the

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

Diamond sale

Alan Martin went on to criticise major European banks, such as

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

, for having investments in some of the Zimbabwe banks involved in the sale of diamonds; saying "By facilitating these transactions, Barclays, Stanbic (Standard Bank) and the IFC are participating in diamond-related violence".

Publications

In 2000, Partnership Africa Canada released a report entitled ''The Heart of the Matter: Sierra Leone, Diamonds & Human Security: Complete Report'' about the effect of diamonds in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

. Since that time, they have produced a number of reports on the state of the diamond industry, and efforts to control the flow of conflict minerals.

Awards

In 2003, Partnership Africa Canada was nominated jointly for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

, with

Global Witness Global Witness is an international NGO that investigates environmental and human rights abuses. The organisation campaigns for greater representation of people affected by the climate crisis in climate decision-making. They have offices in Lon ...

for their role in establishing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to limit the ability of armed groups to fund their operations through the sale of conflict diamonds They were jointly nominated by the American Senator

Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph Leahy ( ; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who represented Vermont in the United States Senate from 1975 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he also was the pr ...

, and the American Representatives Ralph Hall and Frank Wolf. However, the award was won by Shirin Ebadi for her work on democracy and human rights.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Organizations based in Ottawa