We receive many inquiries from thoughtful consumers who have heard about
"conflict diamonds" and who are legitimately concerned about any possible
ethical ramifications of purchasing diamonds. In 2003, President Bush signed
into law the Conflict Diamonds Bill, which prohibits the sale and trade of
illicitly traded diamonds in the United States.
We obtain diamonds ONLY from suppliers and diamond producers that are NOT involved in funding conflict and
which are in compliance with United States trade law and United Nations
resolutions.
These suppliers and diamond producers must legally adhere to to the
Kimberley Process, which is composed of 43 Participants, including the United
States and the European Community. Under the Kimberley Process, diamond-producing countries certify that diamonds have been mined and sold through legitimate channels. This program is designed to prevent conflict and illicit diamonds from entering the
international mainstream diamond trade. Kimberley Process Participants account
for approximately 99.8% of the global production of rough diamonds.
We only do business with diamond suppliers who guarantee us that they abide by the
System of Warranties, which are written guarantees at the bottom of the actual wholesale diamond invoices provided to us, but these guarantees do not come in the form of a printed "certificate" to be given out to
consumers. The System of Warranties Statement provided to us by our
suppliers is as follows:
The diamonds herein invoiced have been purchased from legitimate sources not involved in funding conflict and in compliance with United Nations Resolutions. The undersigned hereby guarantees that these diamonds are conflict free, based on personal knowledge and/or written guarantees provided by the supplier of these diamonds.
Official Kimberley Process certificates of origin for conflict free unpolished diamonds are generated by Government Diamond Offices in countries where diamonds are mined. These diamonds eventually are polished to become the finished diamonds used in jewelry, but do not follow the finished polished diamond product to the diamond dealer or consumer - these documents are traded only with uncut
diamonds between diamond "dealers".
It has come to our attention that there are some retail jewelry companies printing their own documents to "certify" that their diamonds are "clean", as a selling tool for their customers, but these guarantees are only worth the paper they are printed on, and there is no way to discover by ANY kind of examination of a
loose or mounted diamond to truly determine its actual origin. There is also NO central organization or laboratory which "certifies" individual polished diamonds
to be sold to the public as conflict free.
The original statement from President George Bush on the passing of the
conflict diamonds bill is reprinted below for your convenience.
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Bush Passes Conflict Diamonds Bill - Statement by U.S. President George W. Bush: April 25, 2003.
I have today signed into law H.R. 1584, the "Clean Diamond Trade Act." The Act enables this Nation to implement procedures developed by more than 50 countries to exclude rough "conflict diamonds" from international trade, while promoting legitimate trade. Conflict diamonds have been used by rebel groups in Africa to finance their atrocities committed on civilian populations and their insurrections against internationally recognized governments. The United States has played a key role over the past 2 years in forging an international consensus to curb such damaging trade and has therefore strongly supported the "Kimberley Process." Diamonds also are critical to the economic growth and development of African and other countries, so preserving their legitimate trade is an important foreign policy objective.
This Act directs the President to implement regulations to carry out the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). Although under this Act I have discretion to issue regulations consistent with future changes to the KPCS, under the Constitution, the President cannot be bound to accept or follow changes that might be made to the KPCS at some future date absent subsequent legislation. I will construe this Act accordingly.
Section 15 of the Act provides that the legislation takes effect on the date the President certifies to the Congress that either of two specified events has occurred. The first event is that "an applicable waiver that has been granted by the World Trade Organization is in effect." The second event is that "an applicable decision in a resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations is in effect." Once the Act takes effect, it "shall thereafter remain in effect during those periods in which, as certified by the President to the Congress, an applicable waiver or decision" by the World Trade Organization or the United Nations Security Council, respectively, "is in effect."
If section 15 imposed a mandatory duty on the President to certify to the Congress whether either of the two specified events has occurred and whether either remains in effect, a serious question would exist as to whether section 15 unconstitutionally delegated legislative power to international bodies. In order to avoid this constitutional question, I will construe the certification process set forth in section 15 as conferring broad discretion on the President. Specifically, I will construe section 15 as giving the President broad discretion whether to certify to the Congress that an applicable waiver or decision is in effect. Similarly, I will construe section 15 as imposing no obligation on the President to withdraw an existing certification in response to any particular event. Rather, I will construe section 15 as giving the President the discretion to determine when a certification that an applicable waiver or decision is no longer in effect is warranted.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 25, 2003.
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What this means is that NO company doing business in the United States,
including the Antique Jewelry Mall, can legally sell or trade conflict diamonds.
You may read more about the Kimberley Process
and the System of Warranties here:
http://www.diamondfacts.org/conflict/eliminating_conflict_diamonds.html#system
and on the Kimberley Process
website here:
http://www.kimberleyprocess.com
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