Tuesday, July 22, 2008

what are conflict-free diamonds?



do you remember the movie "Blood Diamond?" for those of us who haven't seen the movie yet, a conflict diamond is mined and sold by rebels in order to fund armed conflict and civil wars. some of these wars are located in Angola, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. the Kimberley Process, started in 2003 by the jewelry industry, made it illegal to trade conflict diamonds and created a certification process. conflict- free diamonds are as beautiful and more valuable. you can be sure of buying clean diamonds by demanding from your jeweler a written guarantee on the invoice that his or her suppliers buy conflict-free diamonds. my guarantee (as recommended by Amnesty International) reads like this; "The diamonds herein invoiced have been purchased from legitimate sources not involved in funding conflict and in compliance with United Nations resolution. The seller hereby guarantees that these diamonds are from areas that are free of conflict, based on personal knowledge and/or written guarantees provided by the supplier of these diamonds." for further information, go to www.amnestyusa.org
i wish i could guarantee your marriage as conflict-free as these diamonds;)

all designs © Alexandra Hart

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