Standards Development & Harmonisation

Code of Practices Review 2017/2019

The 2019 Code of Practices has now been published.
From July 2017 to April 2019, we undertook a major review of the Code of Practices (COP), the standard against which all RJC members must demonstrate independently verified conformance to achieve certification.
The RJC Standards Committee agreed the final revisions to the COP Standard and Guidance on 25 January 2019, as the culmination of an 18-month multi-stakeholder consensus-building process. The Standards Committee’s recommendation to approve the revisions was accepted by the RJC Executive Committee on 25 March 2019 and subsequently by the Board on 1 April 2019. The objectives of the Review were to update the Code of Practices, as well as its supporting documents and training. RJC has logged issues and comments received since the publication of the Code of Practices in 2013 and worked with a wide range of stakeholders on key issues for the standards revision. Below is an archive of the revision process. Please email consultation@responsiblejewellery.com with any questions you may have.

Revision Process

This comment period is now closed.

The comment period is to invite input from all interested parties on the proposed process, scope and timelines for the review of the COP standard. These are outlined in the Public Summary document.

This comment period is now closed.

This comment period is to invite input on the proposed changes to the COP standard from all interested parties. These are outlined in the Proposed Changes document.

This comment period is now closed.

This comment period is to invite input on the proposed changes to the due diligence requirements for the diamond supply chain in the COP standard. These are outlined in the Public Summary document.

FAQs

To ensure that the COP remains relevant and reflects good sustainability practices in the jewellery supply chain. We review our standards at least once every 5 years, which is in line with ISEAL Alliance Codes of Good Practice.

Key topics for review are outlined in the Public Summary document. There will be some changes to the provisions/requirements within the COP, other changes will be to the guidance document only. An update of the COP’s harmonisation with other relevant standards will also be carried out.

Oversight of the review and decision-making lies with the multi-stakeholder Standards Committee. The consultation process includes at least two public comment periods in addition to targeted outreach to specific stakeholder groups. See the Public Summary for more information.

Please continue with your plans. Certification against the revised COP will not be possible until it has been approved and finalised. This is anticipated to be at the end of 2018. Once the revised COP is final, there will be an appropriate phase-in period to allow members to transition to the new version of the standard. The details pertaining to the phase-in period will be communicated to members in due course.

If you wish to request a hard copy of a 2019 COP document please send your request to: consultation@responsiblejewellery.com. Please note that there will be a reasonable administrative cost involved in having hard copies produced. The hard copies documents will only be available in English.

For further information please see the top of this page to review the 3 rounds of consultation conducted.

As a full member of ISEAL alliance we follow their setting social and environmental standards code V.6.0. This requires the RJC to conduct a full review of the standard every 5 years, or sooner. There currently is not a set date for the next revision of the Code of Practice standard. However this will be conducted no later than 2024. When a revision is required a notification will be made on the standards development section of the RJC website.

Also in this section:

RJC is the global membership and standards body for responsible jewellery throughout the entire supply chain – from mine to retail. Our ‘Code of Practice’ references key development frameworks, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Principles and UN Global Compact and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).