Hans Merket is a researcher focusing on the link between natural resources and conflict, development and human rights. Hans has among others worked on a grass-roots monitoring pilot for artisanal gold mining in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on the human rights impact of small and large-scale mining in Tanzania and on the operationalisation of the business and human rights agenda. Since 2018, he has been looking more closely at diamonds and the Kimberley Process (KP), both as a researcher and as part of the KP Civil Society Coalition, of which IPIS is a member organization. Hans holds a PhD in law from Ghent University, with a dissertation on the European Union and the security-development nexus. Prior to that, he obtained working experiences in several EU institutions, namely the European External Action Service (EU Delegation to Ethiopia – section on Governance and Civil Society) and the European Commission (DG EuropeAid Development and Cooperation – unit on Aid Programming and Management).