Stop Conflict Diamonds In West Africa

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Do you know that many people have been murdered in process of mining diamonds? People in Africa face serious social issues, especially in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia, because of Conflict Diamond which is defined by the United Nations as “any diamond that is mined in areas controlled by forces opposed to the legitimate, internationally recognised government of a country and that is sold to fund military action against that government”. (Blood Diamond, n.d, para1) It is important for people who buy diamonds to be aware of the suffering of African people behind every beautiful diamond they wear and learn to ask for certified diamonds.

The History of conflict diamond in West Africa went through many kinds …show more content…

One of the main reasons is that conflict diamonds fuel civil wars; some rebel forces used conflict diamonds to purchase weapons and arms, in addition to facilitate some illegal activities. As well as these rebel forces make it difficult to trace the origin of the conflict diamonds once it hits the market, therefor others can no longer distinguish conflict diamonds from legitimate diamonds once they are polished. Second reason of why we should stop conflict diamond is that it lead to human suffering; The civil wars in West Africa have taken their on native people in this region, for example, as a result of war and poverty, thousands of children have been forced to live in the dangerous streets, struggling to stay alive while they are homeless, and living through the help of some organisation such as the UNICEF, foreign organisations do their best to provide food, clothing and classes for these destitute children. by 1995 the number of such children reached to 10,000 nation wide. Moreover, young girls are forced into prostitution because it brings in more money than any other job, and they were threatened by death if they tried to escape. Forcing young girls to do such a thing resulted in a big number of pregnancy and many of them were infected with sexually transmitted diseases. (Conflict Diamonds in West Africa, …show more content…

To eliminate the trade in conflict diamonds, The United Nations worked with government and non-government organisations such as Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada to create the Kimberley Process Certification System. This system was officially accepted in 2003 to protect others against conflict diamonds to enter the legitimate diamond supply chain. Another voluntary system was adopted which is the system of Warranties to make the consumers sure that their diamonds. Nowadays, 74 countries joined the Kimberley Process Certification System, and 99% of the world’s diamonds are conflict free. (conflict Diamond,