The role of the KPCS is to act as a watchdog on companies and countries involved in the diamond trade and to stop blood diamonds from entering the mainstream rough diamond market. It involves both industry and government representatives of the major diamond producing and diamond-consuming nations.
The impetus to set up the process came largely from the revelations of terrible war crimes and atrocities in Liberia and Sierra Leone, which ultimately led to the current trial of Charles Taylor in The Hague.