The Kimberley Process is about humanity, it is not about politics, World Diamond Council (WDC) President Eli Izhakoff told KP members at a meeting in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Monday.

Izhakoff said that the Kimberley Process was undergoing one of the most difficult periods in its history, despite the fact that the incidence of actual conflict diamonds in the supply pipeline was "minimal."

At its core, the WDC head continued, the KP is about protecting the right of communities and individuals to derive "properly deserved benefit from natural resources" and caters to the needs of millions of men, women, and children living in areas where diamonds are mined and processed.

Izhakoff said that believed that all the members present remained true to those principles, but had allowed themselves to be divided by other issues. "In so doing, [we] have put the greater goal of the Kimberley Process at risk," he warned.

"One does not, for example, tackle the problem of dirty drinking water by denying peoples' access to water. You clean the water. Likewise, our job is NOT to deny access to diamonds, but rather to make sure that those which are sold are untainted by conflict," Izhakoff stressed.

The WDC president reiterated that while the KP was a non-political system, it had been conceived to defend human rights.

"The diamond and jewelry industries will never undermine the Kimberley Process by trying to skirt the human rights issue," he declared, adding that the industry recognized that human rights violations hurt both diamonds' reputation and the diamond trade.

Izhakoff addressed claims that the KP has become a "self-perpetuating system that is no longer relevant," saying that it was necessary to "protect our collective futures."

"As a proud member of the diamond industry, I can declare that we will do the right thing," Izhakoff concluded.