Addressing the opening session of the 2013 CIBJO Congress in Tel Aviv, the organisation’s president, Dr. Gaetano Cavalieri, reiterated the World Jewellery Confederation’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, and emphasised that all companies must be provided a fair chance to become CSR compliant.
“What we are not prepared to agree to is a situation in which jeweller is assumed guilty through non-association,” he said. “In other words, if you are not part of the club – possibly because you cannot afford the membership fees, or, even worse, you were not invited to join – then it cannot be automatically assumed that your product or your moral standards are beneath those who are associated. CSR should be a universal code of practice, not a paid-for brand symbol that is used to enhance product value, like a crocodile on a Lacoste shirt.”
The following is the full text of Dr. Cavalieri’s address:
Ladies and gentlemen, Brukhim Haba’im Le’ Yisrael!
As members of an ancient craft and trade, it is likely that, for thousands of years, people just like us have met and discussed the business of jewellery, right on the very spot where we today have gathered.
Not much more than a kilometre south of here is located the ancient port of Jaffa. It is a place that archaeologists have shown was inhabited already 9,500 years ago, and it is mentioned in both the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible. We learn that it from where the prophet Jonah set sail, and it is a town in which the apostle St. Peter lived and worked.
Jaffa was one of a series of ports in the eastern Mediterranean that were located at the axis of the Spice Route, which linked the peoples of Asia – including the regions that today comprise the Arabian and Persian Gulf, India, China, Indochina, the Koreas and Japan – with North Africa and Europe. Needless, to say it was not only spices that were carried along the route, but a variety of other materials, including diamonds and coloured gemstones, and precious metals like gold and silver.
In “The Dealer’s Book of Gems and Diamonds,” the Israeli gemmologist Menachem Sevdersmish includes a chapter on the Jewish high priest’s breastplate, which is described in chapter 28 of the Book of Exodus. Made of gold, it is said to have included a variety of gemstones, among them possibly topaz, onyx, jasper, amethyst, sapphire, emerald and diamonds. Some of them may have been mined locally, but others almost certainly would have been brought in along the trade routes.
This is an area where people of different nations have mingled and mixed through centuries. At one time or another Jaffa was controlled by the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Egyptians, the Israelites, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, Saladin’s Moslem forces, the Crusaders, the Ottoman and the British. Even Napoleon passed through and held the port city briefly in 1799.
This clearly is an appropriate setting for a CIBJO Congress, for we are organization that brings together people from countries from around the world, linked by a common trade that unites east with west and north with south.
I would like to express the gratitude of those present to our hosts, the Israel Diamond Institute, IDI President Moti Ganz, IDI Managing Director Eli Avidar, and the women and men who staff the organisation and who took on the massive task of organising two diamond, gemstone and jewellery conferences in one very intensive week.
For those of you who are may be less familiar with IDI, similar to CIBJO on a national scale, it is an organisation that brings under its umbrella the various bodies that make up the Israeli diamond sector, providing services to all and representing this great industry at shows and events around the world. It is fair to state, therefore, that we are guests of the entire Israeli diamond industry, and we thank you most sincerely for your generous hospitality.
This is the second consecutive year that the CIBJO Congress has taken place in the same venue, immediately following the Annual Meeting of the World Diamond Council. There is a natural symbiosis between the two organisations, with related issues on the agenda and common goals and objectives. Both bodies, I believe, reflect our industry at its every best.
Yesterday’s Annual Meeting was significant in a number of respects, one of which was the agreement that was signed between the WDC and the Kimberley Process, for the establishment and creation of a permanent Administrative Support Mechanism to back the work of the KP. It will be operated by four industry organisations, one of which is our host today, the Israel Diamond Institute. The others are the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre and the Diamond House of the Government of Ghana.
The agreement exemplifies the commitment of our industry and the lengths to which we are prepared to go in order to ensure the integrity of the products we handle and the reputation of our business community. I congratulate the WDC and the four organisations for stepping and doing the right thing.
Another note of significance of yesterday’s meeting was that it was the final WDC Plenary Meeting to be presided over my colleague and close friend Eli Izhakoff. It is not yet time to record the history of Eli’s contribution to our industry, for I know that there are additional chapters that will be written. But it is fair to say that there are few individuals who had such a significant impact upon our business, and to whom we owe so much.
The industry’s campaign against conflict diamonds has been one of the proudest periods in our history. It not only preserved our business, but saved thousands of lives that potentially would have been at risk. That is a tremendous legacy, Eli, and it is not yet over.
I would point out that Eli is an office holder in CIBJO, and he is not going to get away from us that easily. That is because we made him Honorary President for Life. He will be around here for a long time to come.
Eli is an extraordinary example of the men and women who give of their time to the public service of our industry. CIBJO is blessed with a good number of such individuals, many of whom have devoted hours and hours in preparing for this congress, and who have been meeting since Sunday in pre-congress steering committees.
They do this not for personal gain. Indeed many take time from their own businesses in order to contribute. They do so because of their love of the business, and because of their deeply held belief that our success is vested in a sense of fair play, and in the confidence that our consumers show in us and our products.
I would briefly like to mention a couple of these people by. The first is Gerard Grospiron, who, with the assistance of our always hardworking Vice President and Sector A President Roland Naftule, has worked toward the harmonisation of the nomenclature in the Diamond, Coloured Gemstone and Pearl Blue Books. This is a project of tremendous importance and it will serve the interests of members of our industry, as well as consumers, around the world.
The second individual who will get special mention is Rudi Biehler, who could not travel to Tel Aviv this week, but is with us in spirit if not in person. As many of you will remember, Rudi played a key role in the decision in October 2004 by a district court in Munich, Germany, to accept the terminology and definitions about synthetic diamonds contained in CIBJO’s Diamond Book. It was a milestone in our history, and was one of the many contributions that Rudi made to this industry. He is missed, and we wish him well.
I have spoken a great deal over the years about the grass roots of the jewellery industry, for it is from there – and only from there – that CIBJO derives its authority. It comes through our national association members, who bring under our umbrella literally hundreds of thousands of companies and individuals across the globe, and at all levels of the business.
We are an inclusive organisation. Our meetings are open. All interested parties are invited to participate and voice their opinion. And when a decision is taken, it is done so in the full light of day.
At this congress, eight professional commissions will meet, discussing a range of issues that is as diverse and intricate as our industry. Among them is the Trade Show Commission, which will be assembling for the first time, and another is the Ethics Commission, will be meeting after a hiatus of several years.
They and the other commissions are all committees of the industry. They are made up of individuals who, when they are not here, are involved in the daily life of the jewellery and gemstone business. They produce, review and update the most definitive and widely accepted set of industry standards and nomenclature – the Blue Books – which are a reflection of the knowledge and experience that they have gained from the ground up.
On a number of occasions over the past several years, there have been attempts by outside groups to set the agenda of our industry. Often, they have been managed by professional consultants who are beholden to no one, nor subject to the oversight of any specific organisation. Their tactic frequently has been to suggest that, if we do not do as they demand, then we must have something to hide. It is case of the tail wagging the dog.
This is not to the say that all the issues raised by these consultants are not important, nor do I suggest that they are matters that we should not address. Our industry, I believe, has proven its readiness, time and time again, to look inward and make changes. This is an on-going process, and indeed is a hallmark of our CIBJO Congresses.
But what we are not prepared to agree to is a situation in which jeweller is assumed guilty through non-association. In other words, if you are not part of the club – possibly because you cannot afford the membership fees, or, even worse, you were not invited to join – then it cannot be automatically assumed that your product or your moral standards are beneath those who are associated.
CSR should be a universal code of practice, not a paid-for brand symbol that is used to enhance product value, like a crocodile on a Lacoste shirt.
The defence of our chain of distribution is of vital importance, and it has to be achieved without imposing unreasonable financial or logistic demands, which may exclude or undermine law-abiding members of our business. We will hear later this morning a presentation by Dr. Donald Fever, of the Graduate School of Business and Law at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. He has been working with CIBJO in developing a fully inclusive programme that will enhance the protection of the chain of distribution.
CIBJO is fully committed to Corporate Social Responsibility, and to the development of tools and practices that ensure that this is a way of life for all members of our industry. Last December, at the GIT conference in Bangkok, I articulated a doctrine for responsible business practices in the jewellery industry. There are three basic rules of practice:
One is to be fully transparent in the way we operate our businesses and about what we sell. In this respect, he CIBJO Blue Books are invaluable guides, and the work that is done by our commissions at CIBJO congresses and in between them is of vital importance.
The second is to defend the industry from the various challenges that could threaten our reputation and integrity. This, of course involves the work of the Kimberley Process, as well as a range of other challenges, which will be addressed by Dr. Feaver.
The third is to function as a positive influence, serving as a means for sustainable economic and social development in the communities and countries in which we are active. This what CIBJO committed to when it was recognised in 2006 as an affiliated NGO by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, from which we are privileged to have with us today Mr. Andrei Abramov, the chief of the ECOSOC NGO section.
CIBJO took upon itself the task of creating educational tools about proactive Corporate Social Responsibility for the entire jewellery industry. It was what led us to set up the World Federation Educational Foundation, or WJCEF, in 2009, to initiate the creation of a UNITAR-operated Centre of Excellence for CSR Education in Antwerp in 2011, and in March of this years, together with Fiera di Vicenza, to begin planning and implementing a new Corporate Social Responsibility programme for the international jewellery industry.
This most recent project has been endorsed by the UN Alliance of Civilisations, and when it is ready will be made available to members of the industry across the globe.
Ladies and gentlemen, the third and concluding section of our agenda this morning will comprise of a panel discussion, during which we will consider the role of the jewellery industry in promoting economic and social development, particularly in countries that for decades were regarded as mainly sources of rough supply. It goes to the heart of what I have spoken about today.
Fine jewellery is a luxury product – of this there is no dispute. Unlike food, water, clothing or housing, it is a non-essential item, which we could live without. But the jewellery business is an essential industry, providing food, water, clothing and housing and the promise of a better life to millions of people around the world. And we are its primary guardians.
Thank you.