Tiffany, Cartier, Zales Urged to Boycott Zimbabwean Diamonds

Contrary to the song, diamonds are not a girl's best friend. At least, not if you're the girl who is forced to mine them instead of going to school. Or if you're the girl whose father was killed in diamond-related gang violence. Or if you're a girl who cares about children being abused in the name of all things shiny. Well, Human Rights Watch has taken a stand and urged major jewelry companies, including Zales, Cartier, and Tiffany's, to boycott diamonds from Zimbabwe.

Why is Zimbabwe the target of this call for boycott? Because the government and diamond industry there are not properly implementing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), a tool designed to help prevent serious human rights abuses like slavery and exploitation in the diamond industry. Despite efforts by KPCS, Zimbabwean diamonds are being mined using child and adult forced labor. This is in direct breach of the Kimberly Process Protocol, which states that diamonds must be mined, documented, and exported lawfully. They are breaching the international tool which was created to end the "blood diamond" industry.

The Zimbabwean diamond industry might not be so easy to boycott, however. That's because lax export laws in Africa often allow diamonds from Zimbabwe which have skirted KPCS protocols to become mixed in with legitimately mined diamonds from places like South Africa. So even if an international boycott of Zimbawean exports takes off, other African nations would have to cooperate and institute their own ways of preventing illegal importing of Zimbabwean diamonds into their countries. It brings up the serious question of, even if all the major jewelry companies agree to boycott, whether or not the measure will work to prevent labor abuses.

Now I'm not categorically anti-boycott, but I feel they should be used in very targeted and specific circumstances only. Too often, blanket boycotts end up hurting the very people they are trying to assist. In this case, I would much rather see Tiffany, Cartier, and Zales work with Zimbabwean diamond producers to ensure KPCS is being followed, with the understanding that failure to improve will result in them taking business elsewhere. I'd also love to see these companies expand into Fair Trade diamonds and expect more rigorous standards to prevent human rights abuses associated with diamond mining. And although I'm not fully on board with the idea of a boycott as the most effective tool in this scenario, I've got to give Human Rights Watch mad props for holding jewelry companies accountable. They have tremendous power to end exploitation in the diamond industry, and we as consumers must demand that they use it.

So Tiffany, Carier, and Zales, your diamonds are beautiful. But at the end of the day, freedom is a girl's best friend.

Photo credit: Brian Harrington