The Truth about Diamonds

By: Noah Ederer Zurich International School F Block English

Blood diamonds Research paper By: Noah Ederer The sale of Blood diamonds is a global issue and what makes it worse is that nearly no one knows about it. Blood diamonds are diamonds sold that are mined by children, men and women under duress. To later be sold on the black market and to normal jewelers. The mine operators use the profits to fund civil wars. The only people who are trying to do something about this are those who support the Kimberly process. They try to stop all trade in blood diamonds. When and how did the Kimberly process started it was In November 2002, negotiations between governments, the international diamond industry and civil society organizations which resulted in the creation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). (Kimberly process) The mining of blood diamonds should be stopped because its a violation of human rights; profits are used to fuel wars and prop up corruption in African governments. Conflict diamonds another term for blood diamonds are mined by children, men and women who have been captured and taken away from their families. Sometimes they are treated like slaves. The people who work in the mines have to work for long hours to avoid punishment. Some reporters were able to get interviews with some of the victims of the blood diamonds camps. (Reporter) The camps are run by Zimbabwe security forces. (First victim) They tie you to a tree and assault you severely. They would not give any food. That went on for a long time and other people with me died as a result of it and soldiers would throw their bodies away. (Reporter) Witnesses said that male prisoners in the camp would get 3 beatings a day, 20 to 40 slashes each time. The women would get a different punishment. (Second victim) Women were taken outside to be abused and, raped. (BBC video Zimbabwe) The people who control the camps are rebel groups who want to over throw the government. The rebel leaders do not have any respect for laws or for any peoples lives. The leaders of the camps use the mined goods to fund their small armies and to keep their camps hidden from the world and also to have soldiers to supervise the workers. The blood diamonds are one of the reasons why there are a lot of civil wars in Africa. The people who mine the blood diamonds for the rebel leaders are treated like dirt. The miners human rights are just ignored by the soldiers. In April 1945, 48 states signed a document called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations). The document was published to protect people from such cruel treatment. As it says in article 1 of

the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood (United Nations). This is a human right and every human being has the right to be treated accordingly. This is not happening in the world as shown by the miners operators who mine the blood diamonds. They are treating their miners like slaves. Being tortured day in and day out for a small pure carbon rock that is worth so much to our society. Not many people know or care where their diamonds come from. The living standards that the people are forced to live in are horrible. They are forced to live in camps under the supervision of soldiers. The soldiers who supervise are aware of what theyre doing. A journalist of the BBC could get an interview with some soldiers that used to work in the camps. (Journalist) they told us that they performed mock drownings, and burnt the miners and set trained dogs on them. (First witness) I saw a man handcuffed behind his back. The dog handler made the dog maul him. One of his ears was torn off and one finger was nearly severed. The whole body was covered in blood (BBC News). Such torture is performed every day on the miners. The people who mine for such a rocks and live through this are later sold to someone who can afford them. Its a disappointment to see that our world is such a corrupt place despite of all our attempts to create peace and order. In some places it has worked but there is still corruption in our world as seen in the trade of blood diamonds. The only organization that has taken responsibility to take care of the diamonds trade is the Kimberly process. The Kimberly process was created by the United Nations to take control of the diamond trade. Additionally they investigate mines to prevent blood diamonds leaking into the global diamond economy. What frustrates the workers of Kimberly Process is that they have no support from anyone and that they have to do all their own research and investigations without any support by governments. The main responsibility of the Kimberly process was to take care of the diamond trade and try and stop the blood diamonds trade, but now they have also to taken responsibility to stop the human rights violations in the blood diamond mines. The actions that the Kimberly process has taken to attempt to stop the blood diamond trade is that they have created a certificate for proper, diamond mines. The certificate proves that the mine pays their workers a fair wage and that their workers are not forced to work. The certificate also proves that the mine is not a blood diamond mine. A down side that has happened ever since the certificates were created is that some blood diamond mines use fake certificates. Thats a small loop hole that the Kimberly process is trying to fix.

All the governments that used blood diamonds to rig their elections and big dictators have had a warning shot from the United Nations and the Kimberly process. The International Court of Justice has come up with their verdict against Charles Taylor, Liberias former president about promoting blood diamonds and being part of the blood diamond trade. He and his companions got 25 to 52 years in jail. I think this is a clear message to all the people in the world that blood diamonds are out there. This involves poor people and government leaders. Its time that the blood diamond trade should be stopped.

In- Text- Citations:

Kimberly process, Kimberly process. KP Basics. Kimberly process . 25.05.2012 http://www.kimberleyprocess.com/web/kimberley-process/kp-basics Hilary, Andersson. Zimbabwe torture camp discovered. 8 August 2011 Last updated at 10:58 BBC News. 25.05.2012 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa14445087>. United Nations , United Nations . The Universal Declaration of Human Rights . United Nations . May 29, 2012 <http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/>. Andersson, Hilary. Zimbabwe torture camp discovered. 8 August 2011 Last updated at 10:58 GMT BBC News. May 29, 2012 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldafrica-14445087>.

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