Introduction: With the colleagues listed below, I am spear-heading an initiative to develop fair trade principles and standards for manufacturing in the jewelry sector. Last May, we developed a set of principles. Now, we are beginning to develop standards for on the ground implementation of these principles. As before, this initiative is open and transparent.

A Call for Action By Niels Madsen, Co-founder of the 16th August Union Introduction: Here, we publish the most recent statement from Niels Madsen, Co-founder and Vice Chairman of the 16th August Union, outlining his struggle to gain the right for the native Inuit people’s mining and selling of rubies which has been well established

Introduction: Diamond fingerprinting refers to a geochemical fingerprinting of individual diamonds, for the purposes of discriminating between diamonds from different mines or deposits on the basis of their trace element chemistry. If proven to be successful, diamond fingerprinting would help to reduce theft and illegal mining and assist in preventing ‘conflict diamonds’ from entering the