The diamond industry has always worn a facade of glitz and glamour; countries rich in the natural resource held promise for socioeconomic advancement, but too often, realities have been on the contrary. In the early 2000s, how the diamond trade was fuelling and facilitating devastating conflict and crime was brought to the forefront as a major socio-political issue with severe implications for multiple affected countries.

The United Nations mandated the voluntary initiative ‘The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme’ in 2003 to “eliminate the presence of conflict diamonds in the chain of producing, exporting and importing rough diamonds”. According to the EU, the identifiable conflict-trade of diamonds reduced from 15% in 2003, to less than 1% today as a result of the participating 85 countries worldwide.

While it is undeniable that the KPCS had a significant positive outcome, the system attracts strong critiques from important stakeholders. The Global Witness points to one failure of the KPCS over the years, emphasising how ‘conflict diamonds’ need to be redefined today as a result of corrupt state entities perpetrating civil rights and human rights abuses, rather than previous funnelling into war supplies by rebel groups. 

Authors and organisations have put forth many potential remedies to strengthen and better adapt the system to the issues of the trade today which are especially severe in mining areas with rampant corruption, where regulation is difficult to instate and nearly impossible to maintain. The KPCS also fails to acknowledge wider issues such as fair pay, child labour, poor working conditions, and health and safety regulations- The Guardian has gone so far as to dub it a ‘convenient smokescreen’ that’s simply preserving a status quo. 

Falling through the arguably dubious sieve that is theKimberleyprocess, are mined diamonds which may have histories of human rights abuses, violence, poverty, and environmental degradation. In response, privately held initiatives such as the Responsible Jewellery Council, and the Diamond Development Initiative have been working together to uphold standards of ethical mining for the benefit and safety of workers and their communities. Traceability and honesty are increasingly important aspects of the mined diamond industry today, as consumers grow more conscious and more knowledgeable. 

The entire lab-grown diamond industry surpasses these issues of conflict, environment, and human rights, it offers the opportunity for the ethical consumer and the ethical retailer to be doubly sure and proud of the origin of their diamonds. We at Itara Jewelry are proud of our diamonds - both natural and lab-grown, always ethically sourced. Our customers who join us, in our movement towards an honest, ethical, and sustainable future for diamond jewellery