While diamonds are gorgeous, even rough diamonds, finding out that they could be blood diamonds makes it hard to see that beauty. We have compiled some useful resources and knowledge around blood diamonds so that you can avoid them and understand how blood diamonds became so popular.
What are Blood Diamonds?
Blood diamonds are diamonds that are illegally traded and mined in order to fund conflict in war-torn areas. We see this particularly in central and western Africa, according to the World Diamond Council, and they are used to help fund opposing governments or militias in these areas that wish to depose the internationally recognized existing governments.
Are Conflict Diamonds Blood Diamonds?
Conflict diamonds are another name for blood diamonds. This is because the bloodshed in conflict for these diamonds (or funded by these diamonds) is what is most memorable about them. Conflict diamonds or blood diamonds, these rough diamonds when mined can cause destabilization and war in other countries.
The World Diamond Council: The Diamond Mining Authority
The World Diamond Council is the commercial regulatory authority for diamond mining. The council was set up in July 2000 in Antwerp, Belgium, after a joint meeting of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), representing all the world’s significant diamond trading centers and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA), representing significant manufacturers. They speak for and manage together the diamond industry. Made up of experts, scientists, designers, and leaders from various diamond industry giants, this council was founded to help manage the legitimate diamond trade.
Regulating Rough Diamonds
Regulating diamond mining can be tricky, and realistically until 2003 it was not a priority of the diamond industry. Blood diamonds were a political hazard but not an industry one. Whether a conflict diamond stoked the flames of war or not did not matter to large diamond mining companies or retailers. Rough diamonds making their way to certain countries with a high demand for them was the goal. This led to mined diamonds being linked to brutal civil wars, forced labor, human rights abuses, rebel groups, war zones, and child soldiers. The precious stones in the earth of diamond-rich countries were mined for the global markets with little to no thought about how this would affect diamond-rich areas. This was primarily seen in African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mining companies operating on the land to extract diamonds turned a blind eye to central African suffering to provide the world’s diamonds to the market.
The Kimberley Process: The Road to Legitimate Diamond Trade?
In 2003, with the help of a signed executive order from President George W. Bush, the Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA) came into effect. The time of illicit trade and conflict diamonds was meant to come to an end. The international diamond trade had been exposed as riddled with fault, and rough diamond exports were starting to wonder just how often they were transporting a blood diamond. Much of this change was driven by political pressure, as well as customers support. Diamond buyers knew that we all bore global witness to the blood diamond trade, and they wanted to start providing more ethical products. The System of Warranties and the Kimberley Process were introduced. The World Diamond Council System of Warranties is a program of self-regulation that tracks diamonds after the Kimberley Process certifies them through the supply chain. The Kimberley Process requires certification to trace where mined diamonds come from and can trace a blood diamond back to its roots. This means that people can trace conflict diamonds for the first time and quickly associate location and funds with the diamond miners responsible. This should have helped guarantee the end of conflict diamonds and made mining conflict-free.
Smuggling
Should is the most important word to note here. The Kimberley Process should have eliminated conflict diamonds from the mined market. Unfortunately, a certification from the Kimberley Process doesn’t apply to one particular stone but rather a collection of rough diamonds cut and shipped worldwide. This opens the door for smugglers to hide conflict diamonds within shipments of “conflict-free” Kimberley Process diamonds. As such, corruption and smuggling are still a part of the diamond trade. Put simply, while the Kimberley Process has successfully slowed down the conflict-diamond trade, it’s not perfect. There’s still no way to know with 100% assurance whether a Kimberley Process diamond is genuinely conflict-free. So if you want to avoid conflict diamonds, what do you do?
Go Lab-Grown
Trying to sort through the conflict diamond pipeline to make sure your mined diamond is conflict-free can be a nightmare. Ultimately, you’ll never really know if the gorgeous gift, hallmark of your love, or anniversary marker is connected to a civil war, forced labor, or human rights abuse. Even legitimate mining is under scrutiny for its environmental impacts alone. Rather than worry about receiving a conflict diamond, avoid them entirely by shopping for lab grown diamonds. By using lab grown diamonds, you avoid purchasing conflict diamonds, and you’ll ultimately get a better price and excellent quality. Plenty of diamond retailers are including lab grown options now that they realize people prefer their jewelry conflict-free and care about the quality and buying ethical jewelry. We pride ourselves on only selling lab grown stones to ensure that our supply chains are filled with the finest diamonds from the most ethical sources.
