#BehindTheBling

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) launched a social media campaign to encourage some of the world’s largest jewellery stores to come clean about how diamonds & gold are sourced and to ensure they are not tainted with human rights violations.

The sad truth is most jewellery brands cannot guarantee their products are free from human rights abuse.

Gold and diamonds are often mined under brutal, abusive conditions. Children are injured or even killed working in hazardous mines. Whole communities face ill-health when mines pollute waterways with toxic chemicals. In war, civilians have suffered enormously as abusive armed groups have enriched themselves by exploiting gold and diamonds.

The HRW conducted a study among 13 of the largest jewellery brands, including Tiffany & Co, Boodles, Harry Winston, Cartier & Rolex. It is unfortunate not a single one of the companies fulfilled all the criteria required to prove sustainable sourcing.

Within the industry, there are many flaws. The majority of jewellery retailers depend on the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) & guidance from the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC). However, the KPCS and the RJC have failed to place strict guidelines and enforcements into place. This is one of the major reasons why this is still happening in this day and age. It has been proved again and again that the KPCS is unsuccessful in preventing conflict diamonds from entering the international diamond market. Diamonds are coming from areas which are notorious for extreme human rights violations, but these are certified as “clean diamonds” under KPCS simply because they did not fund armed forces.

The only way this can be stopped is if everyone comes together and demands a change.

When buying jewellery you should be questioning your jeweller: where is this diamond/gold from? Is it ethically and sustainably sourced? Did any human rights violations occur to mine it?