(Rapaport…February 14, 2002) Amnesty International (AI) released a bulletin on February 13 urging people not to buy diamonds for Valentine’s Day because they “have no way of knowing where their diamond comes from or whether they have contributed to human rights abuses.” The bulletin said that for many people, diamonds do not symbolize love, but “conflict, misery and poverty.”
AI commended measures such as the Kimberley Process and Clean Diamonds Trade Act legislation in the United States, but said they do not do enough.
“They do not go far enough to make a real difference to the lives of people in Angola, DRC and Sierra Leone,” the bulletin stated. “In these countries, the profits from the diamond trade are used to purchase weapons which contribute to human rights abuses.”