Moscow. May 17, 2018 - A representative of ALROSA, the world's largest diamond mining company, was elected as Vice Chair of Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) on May 17.
On May 17, Peter Karakchiev, ALROSA's Head of International Relations, was elected as RJC's Vice Chairman at its 2018 annual general meeting held in Moscow.
The RJC is an international standards setting and certification organization established in 2005 to promote customer confidence in the jewellery supply chain through certification against its Code of Practices (COP) standard. RJC members commit to and are independently audited against the COP which addresses human rights, labour rights, environmental impact, mining practices, product disclosure and many more important topics in the jewellery supply chain. ALROSA became a member of the RJC in 2016 and was granted a three-year COP certification in 2017 following a successful audit with an independent RJC accredited audit firm.
Today, the RJC comprises of over 1,100 member companies with over 9,000 facilities and over 460,000 employees covered under RJC certification worldwide. As a full member of ISEAL, RJC is committed to developing credible and effective standards and continually improving its systems through regular standards review processes with its members and multi-stakeholders. Currently its COP is under review and the new version is expected to be launched early 2019. The RJC will be introducing several important changes including an expansion of its material scope to include coloured gemstones and silver.
"We welcome the decision of the RJC membership to elect Peter Karakchiev as Vice Chairman of the Council. ALROSA's representative in this position once again emphasizes ALROSA's commitment to promoting responsible business practices in the industry and its readiness to take on the leading role in resolving industry-wide problems. We share the RJC values and are ready to assist the organization in its further development. ALROSA today is the only Russian company-member of the RJC. I hope that the annual meeting of the organization here in Moscow will draw the attention of our industry to the importance of responsible sourcing and social and environmental issues," said ALROSA CEO Sergey IVANOV.
Peter Karakchiev joined ALROSA in April 2013, being promoted to the head of the Department in May 2015. He is responsible for a wide range of ALROSA's international activities including participation in industry organizations and developing the Company's position on key agenda items in the diamond industry. He is also member of the WDC Board of Directors.