What are Blood Diamonds?
Blood diamonds are diamonds that are implicated in horrific human rights abuses including diamond-fueled violence, child labor, and environmental destruction.  Diamond-fueled violence includes diamonds illegally traded to fund conflict in war-torn areas, particularly in central and western Africa. The United Nations (UN) defines conflict diamonds as "...diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council." This narrow definition does not include state sanctioned violence, local brutality in diamond mining, or any other human rights abuses.

Background
Blood diamonds captured the world's attention during the extremely brutal conflict in Sierra Leone in the late1990s, where rebels carried out systematic amputations of limbs during an eight-year brutal campaign. During this time, it is estimated that up to 14% of the world diamond production was being used to fund bloody civil wars. Illicit rough diamonds have also been used by rebels to fund conflicts in Angola, Liberia, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo (also known as Congo Brazzaville). During this time, Unita, a rebel militia group in Angola, generated close to $1.5 billion from sales of diamonds mined in areas it controlled, using the proceeds to wage a brutal civil war that killed 500,000 people before ending in 2002

300,000 carats of diamonds annually are currently being mined with slave labor in the rebel-held regions in Ivory Coast and sold to fund violent conflicts. Hundreds of Ivory Coast laborers are being forced to work in diamond pits by the rebel group named the Forces Nouvelles. These diamonds are being smuggled out through neighboring countries such as Mali as well as other countries that are not Kimberley Process participants, ultimately finding their way to the jewelry worn in developed countries. Millions of dollars in revenues from these illicit diamonds fund weapons purchases and violence by The Forces Nouvelles.

State sanctioned violence is also prevalent in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  On August 8th 2006, the BBC reported that six illegal miners had been killed at the Miba diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo near the central town of Mbuji-Mayi. Children are often the victims of diamond-fueled violence and exploitation in the DRC. The DRC is a member of the Kimberley Process, and has more than 30% of the world’s diamond reserves, producing more than $2B of diamonds every year.

Liberian diamonds, although subject to UN sanctions, are being certified by the Kimberley Process and smuggled through neighboring countries to international markets. In April 2006, the United Nations-backed court in Sierra Leone arrested former Liberian President Charles Taylor with 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Taylor is accused of buying diamonds from Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for arms, resulting in the deaths of over 50,000 people. With Taylor's backing, Sierra Leone rebels carried out systematic amputations of limbs during an eight-year brutal campaign, which ended in 2003 when Taylor was exiled to Nigeria. According to a Global Witness and Amnesty International report released in February 2006, conflict diamonds from Liberia are still being smuggled into neighboring countries for export.

The Kimberley Process
In July 2000, after millions of deaths fueled by diamonds, Global Witness created enormous pressure on the global diamond industry to force their participation with other NGOs, governments, and the UN to create a policy toward “conflict diamonds” called the Kimberley Process Certification System. This system was formally adopted in 2003 to decrease the number of “conflict diamonds” entering the legitimate diamond supply chain. Participating countries belonging to the Kimberley Process claim that rough diamonds originating within their borders are not directly used to finance rebel militias. There is little to no oversight for these “recognized” governments, and often little incentive for governments to claim otherwise. Some estimates say that up to 30% of the rough output of some diamond mines is smuggled out illegally.

The diamond industry also adopted a voluntary System of Warranties with no independent monitoring to claim that their diamonds do not originate from conflicts. These warranties are rarely kept - in a survey conducted in February 2006, Amnesty International found that only 18% of retailers had a policy toward ensuring their diamonds were compliant with the Kimberley Process. 

While diamonds have been used to fund conflict, the problem is not the diamonds themselves but the rebels, governments, and individuals who exploit diamonds and in turn, other humans, to achieve their illicit goals.