How To Avoid Buying One

“A stone so rare, men will do anything to possess it and all who touch it are left with blood on their hands”. Warlords in these countries enslave their own countrymen to mine diamonds. This results in horrible human rights abuse. The United Nations defines blood diamonds as diamonds that are mined in areas controlled by groups that are opposed to the recognized government in that country. Extraordinarily violent wars. All of this violence and death is how the term, “blood diamonds” and “conflict diamonds” were coined. If you are familiar with this quote then I’m sure you have seen the Leonardo DiCaprio drama, Blood Diamond.

How this negative term was coined.

History The 1990s are an important period in the history of blood diamonds. The rebel groups organized extremely violent campaigns that brought tragedy to innocent civilians. Profits from these diamond sales were used to buy weapons for these rebel groups. How this negative term was coined. They were then merged into the supply of legitimately mined diamonds and then sold on the open market. These specific conflicts focused the world’s attention to the destructive role of diamonds, although these same conflicts were occurring in other countries as well. During this time, rough diamonds mined in rebel-controlled areas were sold directly to diamond traders or were smuggled into neighboring countries.

There is virtually no way to determine a conflict diamond from a legitimately mined diamond after it enters the processing stream. On the other hand, diamond traders became worried that growing insurgence against blood diamonds might lead to a boycott of all the gems. All diamonds are cut and polished by the same companies and brought to the consumer market. At this time there was no process to track the origin of diamonds. The report specifically criticized ,

You might be thinking, “isn’t this supposed to be a diamond blog to help me find a ring for my fiancé? Why are you giving me a history lesson? Keep politics out of it”.

The Kimberley Process is a certification process that began in 2003 with the goal to prevent diamond mining from funding political conflict. These requirements and legislations mandate that institutions regulate exports and imports through internal controls and commit to transparency and the exchange of statistical data. Some argue that the program is ineffective because there is no true enforcement. However, this certification scheme does impose extensive requirements on its members and enables them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as “conflict-free”. This prevents conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate trade. Members can only legally trade with other participants who have also met the minimum requirements.

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The Diamond Development Initiative

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Another great organization that works to combat the mining and trade of blood diamonds is The Diamond Development Initiative (DDI). “It provides miners with access to the opportunities, information and tools they need to work with dignity as valued actors in the responsible supply chain and as contributors to their community’s development” (ddiglobal.org). The organization works to help those who live in poverty and are vulnerable to health and safety risks, exploitation and human rights abuses in these areas.

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How to Avoid Buying Blood Diamonds

Conflict Free Diamonds Find a jeweler you trust and make sure that they specialize in conflict-free diamonds and jewelry in general.

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The next thing you want to do is to ask the jeweler where their diamonds are mined. Many diamond companies advertise that their diamonds are fairly traded, so it is important to ask if they are certified. Under what conditions it was mined. If the jeweler doesn’t know or tries to assure you the diamond is fine without answering your question, this could be a red flag and you might want to find a more honest jeweler to purchase your diamond from. You want to know where the diamond comes from. They should be able to tell you about every step of the process starting with where the diamond is mined all the way to how it ends up in the jewelry store.

A great tip to finding a conflict free diamond is to avoid buying a diamond that was mined in areas of conflict. You can avoid purchasing diamonds that were mined in these countries and other countries where diamond mining funds warfare and violence. Seems self-explanatory, right? There are multiple human rights agencies such as Amnesty International that have documented human rights abuse in several countries that mine diamonds.

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Another great tip to avoiding conflict diamonds is to shop for vintage or antique diamonds. Also, if you have a family heirloom diamond, but don’t like the setting or style, you can take it to a jeweler and they can usually reset or re-cut the diamond and create a new setting or design to your preference. The downfall to this is that you may not know where the antique or vintage diamond was mined and may not have a way of finding out. However, you will be avoiding supporting current abuses and blood diamond mining in the diamond industry.

Conflict Free Gold Make sure to also check the source of the gold in the setting of your engagement ring. Again, you need to ask your jeweler where the gold is mined in the same way as you did with the diamonds. The environment by choosing recycled gold. You can ensure the health of the workers. Unfortunately, some current gold mining practices can be environmentally destructive and subject to mercury and cyanide, which are extremely poisonous. Another option is to purchase fair trade gold to ensure ethical mining practices worldwide.

Conclusion It is said that the share of blood diamonds in the global diamond trade fell from as much as 15 percent in the 1990s to less than 1 percent by 2010. Even in countries certified as conflict-free, it is possible for corrupt officials to use their control over illegal diamond operations to benefit themselves or preserve their power at the expense of diamond miners. This abuse of the legitimate diamond trade is prompting protests to redefine blood diamonds as, “gems whose trade is based on aggression or violence of any kind”. This redefinition would expand the campaign against blood diamonds. Fight mining conditions in countries where basic human rights are denied. These workers can be denied basic human rights and treated with violence.