The High Cost of Diamonds
Published: Wednesday, November 01, 2000
A comprehensive human rights policy is essential to good business practices, according to Amnesty. Salil Tripathi, who directs the group's campaign on human rights and economic relations, explains: “All companies are expected, under the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to preserve, protect and promote human rights within their sphere of influence. What we mean is not just their own staff and assets, which is usually the prime concern, but also the rights of the local community around them.”
Tripathi says companies must do research before going into a country. “There are a number of Human Rights NGO's [nongovernmental organizations] worldwide, which are good sources of information for both political and social analysis.” (His recommendations: California-based Project Underground, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, Survival, and Control Risks Group, all in London.)
Although Amnesty normally maintains a neutral stance on issues and does not advocate for sanctions, the organization has taken a stand on the diamond trade in the African nation of Sierra Leone because of gross human rights violations by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and Revolutionary United Front (RUF). “We took a very strong stand against it, calling for the end of diamond trade with Sierra Leone,” Tripathi says. AFRC and RUF have called their systematic campaign of killing, rape and mutilation, “Operation No Living Thing,” says Amnesty.
The practice of selling conflict diamonds has become so controversial that the industry has been forced to take steps to change policies to avoid a potentially disastrous consumer backlash.
Global Witness, a nonprofit organization in London, has led the effort to thrust the issue into the public eye. “In 1996 we started researching the role of diamonds in Angola, and in December 1998 we published a report, 'A Rough Trade,' ” says Alex Yearsly of Global Witness. “From there the issue snowballed.”
Diamond certification seems to be the universally accepted solution, but it has also been challenging. “Some countries can implement certification overnight because they have systems in place,” Yearsly says. “For establishment in countries like Angola, Ivory Coast and Guinea, however, it will be more problematic because of lack of infrastructure and corruption.”
Yearsly believes a global system could be in place within six to eight months. “The pressure is on not only in the media and with the public, but with governments, too. In the U.S., Rep. Tony Hall [D-Ohio] is working to pass legislation to ban all conflict diamonds—which could completely change the way the industry is run.”
David Rocha, senior vice president of Jewelers of America Inc., says that the newly formed World Diamond Council intends to have a resolution for the certification of diamonds ready and made public by the end of the year. “The intention is to set up a certification process that would take legitimately mined diamonds to cutting and processing centers in sealed containers with certification attached to them,” he says, adding that the World Diamond Council's system will be the one upon which the industry relies.
The Canadian government, however, appears to already have a system in place that sets the standard for the industry.
According to Martin Irving, Northwest Territories director of diamond projects, the government's system uses technology developed by Toronto-based Gem Print to create an image of the diamond, translating it into a series of dots, which is like a “fingerprint” of a stone and unique to that particular diamond. The certification program includes a monitoring and auditing process “where we track the diamonds from the mine to the time they come out of the factory as a polished diamond,” Irving says. A certificate then accompanies the diamond to the dealer.
“There are a number of companies in Canada that laser-engrave an image on the girdle of a polished diamond, but it doesn't prove where it comes from,” Irving says. The image only proves the finished stone comes from Canada but doesn't indicate the origin of a rough diamond, which could be from a “blood diamond” country, he adds.
While the Northwest Territories currently has only one mine to monitor, other members of the industry face a more complicated predicament. As the world's largest miner of diamonds, DeBeers Mining Co., based in Johannesburg, South Africa, has the task of monitoring a global network of suppliers. According to DeBeers spokeswoman Tracey Peterson, the company has always been in favor of international
certification but has yet to develop a
system that can guarantee a gem's origin with 100 percent accuracy.
“There really is no way for retailers to verify where diamonds come from—other than dealing with a supplier that they know and trust. By the time a
stone gets to a retailer, it could have gone through 12 to 15 sets of hands,” Rocha says.
In an attempt to work more closely with its 120 suppliers, DeBeers announced in July that all of its clients must adhere to the “Best Practice Principles,” a stringent policy outlining company practices with respect to purchasing diamonds. The principles go into effect July 2001 but will be ready for clients wishing to begin early in January 2001. Clients will be legally bound by the principles, Peterson says. They include such rules as not purchasing conflict
diamonds, not violating child labor laws and not purchasing diamonds from areas that are harmful to the lives of miners or the environment.
“If we find they are violating any of these principles, they will immediately fall from our list of clients,” Peterson says. It is not clear, however, how sup-pliers will be monitored.
In Sierra Leone, political pressure appears to be having some effect. In July, the United Nations imposed a worldwide embargo on the sale of diamonds from the country because the industry there lacked government certification. This, in effect, stopped all exports. In October, Sierra Leone received certificates of origin printed on forgery-resistant security paper, including a mandatory receipt that must be returned by the purchaser. Diamond traders in that country can now export “legitimate” diamonds. Whether the certification system will work, however, remains to be seen.
Yearsly says that regardless of the industry's sincerity, monitoring and certification are essential. He notes that it isn't important how the industry stops blatant human rights violations con-nected to diamonds—only that it does.
For the Amnesty International Human Rights Principles for Companies, visit www.LohasJournal.com or www.aiusa.org.