Call to Action from Blood Diamond
In addition to the Blood Diamond movie website, there is now a Blood Diamond Action website which, as you might expect, focuses on the issue of conflict diamonds. The site offers links to Global Witness, Amnesty International, Partnership Africa Canada, the Kimberley Process, and the World Diamond Council (although not Diamondfacts.org.) It offers visitors links to donate funds to Global Witness and Amnesty “to raise awareness and prevent diamonds from fuelling conflict, human rights abuses and terrorism.” In fact, the website is sponsored by those two organizations (in addition to the movie) which is why it has the non-profit “.org” address. (And, just in case all the downloadable reports on the flaws in the Kimberley Process are a little too serious for you, you can watch the movie trailer too.) The site advises consumers to ask to see a retailer’s written policy on conflict diamonds and actual warrantees from suppliers. There will probably be an increase in questions like this during the next month. Is your store ready? During Amnesty International’s 2004 survey of 246 retail stores on the issue,only 27% of shops said that they had a policy on conflict diamonds and even 30% of those shops were unable to produce a hard copy or explain it. Hopefully, matters have improved immensely since then. But make sure that everyone on your staff can answer questions on the topic. If you are not sure, there are some handy training materials at Diamondfacts.org.
