Clean Diamonds Act – Section-by-Section Analysis

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Section 1 – The Bill shall be called the Clean Diamonds Act.

Section 2 – The bill makes findings about the extent of suffering underwritten by the trade in conflict diamonds, including 6.5 million people driven from their homes and 2.4 million killed.

Section 3 – Diamonds may not be imported into the United States unless the exporting country is implementing a system of controls on the export and import of rough diamonds as described in the UN General Assembly’s December 2000 Resolution, or in a future international agreement that implements such controls.

This system’s implementation shall be monitored by a presidential commission, whose members shall include representatives of human rights organizations. The commission will develop a label certifying that a diamond is clean, having reached the U.S. market through countries implementing this system of controls.

Section 4 – Violators shall be subject to civil and criminal penalties, including confiscation of contraband. Significant violators’ US assets may be blocked. Proceeds from diamonds seized as contraband shall be transferred to US AID’s War Victims Fund and used to help civilians affected by wars, through humanitarian relief and microcredit development projects.

Section 5 – The president shall report annually to Congress on the system’s effectiveness; on which counties are implementing it; on which countries are not implementing it and the effects of their actions on the illicit trade in diamonds; and on technological advances that permit determining a diamond’s origin, marking a diamond and tracking it.

Section 6 – The GAO shall report on the law’s effectiveness within thee years of enactment.

Section 7 – It is the sense of the Congress that (a) the President immediately negotiate an international agreement designed to eliminate the illicit trade in diamonds; and (b) the system implementing it be transparent and subject to independent verification and monitoring by a U.S. organization.

Section 8 – Definitions.

Section 9 – The law takes effect six months after enactment. Under limited conditions, the President may delay applicability of the law to a specific country for six months, provided he report to Congress in that country’s progress toward establishing a system of controls and concluding an international agreement.