Help Stop Conflict Diamonds

Behind all the glitz, romance, and glamour that diamonds evoke, there lies the story of conflict diamonds or blood diamonds which has wasted thousands of lives of the people living especially in the country of Africa. This has been going on for years now but it was only in the year 2000 that the United Nations Organization took a closer look at the diamond trading in this country.

With the help of movies like "Die Another Day" and "Blood Diamond" the awareness of conflict diamonds to the people have increased. Right now, there are organizations and systems that were developed in spreading the information and campaigns to stop the buying and trading of conflict diamonds.

Brief Background

Conflict diamonds or some may call it, "blood diamonds" are diamonds mined in a war zone that the mining of them were mostly dominated by armed revolutionary groups who do not recognize internationally recognized governments to finance their war operations. The proceeds of the purchases of these conflict diamonds clearly contribute to human rights abuses and wars in central Africa and West Africa that causes a lot of lives of the people.

Because of this, the United Nations was forced to take a closer look to this illicit trade of industry and have developed systems that would somehow eliminate the trading of conflict diamonds. In effect, there are international sanctions posted for those countries that support and buy conflict diamonds that may have enslaved or killed someone in those parts of Africa. Countries have created their individual approaches when it comes to curb the practice of trading blood diamonds and fortunately, since more people are now aware of them, consumers are now asking questions before buying, making the government take a standard in diamond trading.

What You Could Do

As a consumer who is aware of this illicit trade happening in the diamond industry, it is your responsibility to know how your jewelry store obtained the diamond. It is important that you take a stand to yourself by setting a standard that you are not tolerating the illicit trade and only buy those which have certificates that are saying that they are conflict-free.

Also, it is good if you could support groups or organizations that are campaigning to stop the trade of blood diamonds. You could visit the website stopblooddiamonds.org and help raise awareness and receive updates, directory listing of other supporters who are mostly jewelry stores, and receive free verification page containing your detailed information and linked from your website.