There are countries, mostly in Africa, which have many natural treasures, like diamonds; however the demographic, political and economic conditions in these countries have created a phenomenon in which the diamonds (and sometimes also other natural treasures) are mined under conditions of coercion, while risking the safety and even the lives of the miners at these natural deposits, and under terms of employment that they are no less than inhumane.

The countries in which diamonds were mined under terms of coercion include Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo, the Ivory Coast, Liberia and others. In many cases, the mines in which the diamonds are mined under these conditions are run by resistance and warfare organizations that use the money from selling these diamonds in order to buy weapons and means of warfare in these areas of conflict. In part of these countries, the diamonds are mined while failing to maintain the human rights of the miners, and some of these miners are young boys, and many of them are hurt and even lose their lives in the course of this work.

At the end of the 1990s, it was estimated that only 4% of the diamonds that are mined every year originate from these blood mines. These blood diamonds hurt the reputation of the stone that its name is related to romantic love, glitter, wealth and pampering. The sharp contrast between the workers, whose human rights aren’t maintained, and those rich people who wear shinny diamonds – was almost incomprehensible.

The Kimberley Process – The World’s Answer to the Blood Diamonds
In the year 2003, a forum called “Kimberley” (named after the city Kimberley in South Africa where the process began) was established. The goal of this forum was to mark and approve only those diamonds that were mined in a process, in which the human rights of the miners were maintained. A “Kimberley certificate” is a certificate that is issued to every diamond, and especially to diamonds that arrive from countries in Africa. This certificate confirms that the entire process of mining, processing and polishing the diamond was done by regulated organizations that acted according to the law.

The blood diamonds, which are produced in mines that exploit men, women, boys and girls in inhumane conditions in order to mine diamonds that finance warfare activities – can’t be sold anymore in the authorized commercial channels, and therefore those organizations that are involved in blood diamonds can’t profit anymore from mining these diamonds, unless they will maintain proper working conditions.

The Blood Diamonds- The Situation Today
More than 99% of the diamonds that are traded today are “clean”-meaning they are diamonds that passed the Kimberley process and they are mined, polished and handled in a documented manner.
Israel was one of the founders of the Kimberley process and it even held the process’s annual summit in the year 2010.

At Moti Israeli-Diamonds you can find polished diamonds of high quality that passed the Kimberley process and have a gemological certificate from the GIA.