Dutch diamonds not necessarily conflict-free

Buying diamonds in the Netherlands, consumers may still unintentionally contribute to the financing of bloody civil and cross-border wars in Africa.

European governments are still unable to guarantee the conflict-free origin of diamonds. This means Dutch jewellers may still be bringing so-called ‘blood diamonds’ to the market.

These are the main conclusions of two investigations of the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) on the implementation of the international certification scheme for rough diamonds.