Citizens of the UK are privy to the kind of human rights and social norms only dreamt of by those in war torn and developing countries. As such a certain level of responsibility comes along with those rights. One of which is the practice of ethical consumption in terms of everything from food and household cleaning products to holidays and jewellery buying.
No Dirty Gold
The “No Dirty Gold” campaign is about raising global awareness concerning the impact of unethical gold mining in locations such as Bristol Bay in Alaska, where a proposed mine will infringe upon one of the globe’s most crucial salmon habitats, endangering the people who ethically subsist on the salmon population as well as the fish themselves.
When shopping for gold jewellery in the UK, look for jewellers who work alongside the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices. The organisation has been specifically created to help promotion of environmentally ethical, socially responsible business practice along every link in the trade chain – from the mine to the ring on a finger.
Conflict Diamonds
Conflict diamonds (blood diamonds) are stones sold illegally in order to fund conflict and civil war within countries under trade embargoes due to massive human rights violations. The illegal arms trade is made stronger and more damaging by the trade in blood diamonds.
Since 2003 the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) has, with the support of all major diamond-exporting nations, policed and validated the import and export of rough diamonds. The stringent stipulations of the KPCS has been incredibly effective, however conflict diamonds do still unfortunately exist. Conflict diamond awareness campaigns offer this simple piece of advice – ask the jeweller for proof. Every diamond should have a unique government-validated certificate proving its origin. If a jeweller or trader cannot produce such a document the issue should be reported to the authorities.