The Office of the United Nations Secretary General has announced the publication of statements delivered by NGOs affiliated to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), for the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development that is currently taking place. Only 179 statements from the more than 5,400 NGOs affiliated to ECOSOC were published, and among them was the declaration delivered by CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation.

 

Representing the international jewellery sector in the key UN agency, which is responsible for promoting the body’s Sustainable Development Goals, CIBJO became the first and only jewellery industry organisation in ECOSOC when it received special consultative status in 2006.

 

“CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, remains committed to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to furthering this objective through the leadership, educational activities and other services that it provides globally within the greater jewellery industry, along its full value chain, from the mining regions through to the retail markets. More specifically, it supports the theme of the 2020 ECOSOC High-Level segment ‘Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development,’ obligating itself to sustained action within its sector and among its stakeholders during the final ten years of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” CIBJO declared at the opening of its statement.

 

The CIBJO statement referred specifically to the current coronavirus pandemic and its impact on communities dependent upon revenues generated by jewellery, precious metals and gemstones. “The current COVID-19 pandemic, which poses massive health and economic challenges to the world community in general, represents a particular risk to the sector that CIBJO serves, and more particularly to those individuals and communities in developing countries, who rely on the support and economic leverage provided by the jewellery, precious metals and gemstone sectors, which currently are under threat. At the same time, new technologies and processes that are being applied to cope with the pandemic and its various impacts provide the promise of improving CIBJO’s ability to better serve its stakeholders beyond the crisis. Most importantly, COVID-19, which does not discriminate between people, nations and regions, underscores the degree to which all of humanity is interdependent,” it noted.