Volume 6 : 1
Human Rights Challenges for Multinational Corporations Working and Investing in Conflict Zones
Corporate Complicity under International Criminal Law: A Case for Applying the Rome Statute to Business Behaviour
Regulating the Private Security Industry: Connecting the Public and the Private through Transnational Private Regulation
Ethical Accounting For The Conduct Of Private Military And Security Companies
False Extraterritoriality? Municipal and Multinational Jurisdiction over Transnational Corporations
Sunlight for the Heart of Darkness: Conflict Minerals and the First Wave of SEC Regulation of Social Issues
Shining Brightly? Human Rights and the Responsible Sourcing of Diamond and Gold Jewellery from High Risk and Conflict-Affected Areas
Corporate Human Rights Violations and Private International Law. A Facilitating Role for PIL or PIL as a Complicating Factor?
Human Rights Challenges for Multinational Corporations Working and Investing in Conflict Zones
Corporate Complicity under International Criminal Law: A Case for Applying the Rome Statute to Business Behaviour
Regulating the Private Security Industry: Connecting the Public and the Private through Transnational Private Regulation
Ethical Accounting For The Conduct Of Private Military And Security Companies
False Extraterritoriality? Municipal and Multinational Jurisdiction over Transnational Corporations
Sunlight for the Heart of Darkness: Conflict Minerals and the First Wave of SEC Regulation of Social Issues
Shining Brightly? Human Rights and the Responsible Sourcing of Diamond and Gold Jewellery from High Risk and Conflict-Affected Areas
Corporate Human Rights Violations and Private International Law. A Facilitating Role for PIL or PIL as a Complicating Factor?
Year
2012
Volume
6
Number
1
Page
159
Language
English
Court
Reference
M.E. FOOTER, “Shining Brightly? Human Rights and the Responsible Sourcing of Diamond and Gold Jewellery from High Risk and Conflict-Affected Areas”, HRILD 2012, nr. 1, 159-191
Recapitulation
The mining of diamonds has oft en led to conflict due to the vast financial rewards that can be reaped, providing a valuable source of finance for ongoing conflicts in certain sub-Saharan countries such as Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The situation is not dissimilar in the mining of gold, where violations of basic human rights arising from internal displacement, environmental degradation and loss of livelihood, coupled with health and safety risks, are commonplace in many mining and local communities. Drawing on the ‘Guiding Principles’, this article examines the sourcing of diamonds and gold by the fine jewellery industry, particularly where the supply chain leads back to the mining of diamonds and gold in conflict-affected and high risk areas, yielding blood diamonds or dirty gold. Besides mapping the relationship between various different but complementary instruments and measures aimed at responsible supply chain management, it questions whether existing efforts by various stakeholders are sufficiently robust in dealing with human rights abuses in the minerals and metals supply chain. It reflects on what impact, if any, corporate due diligence and improved traceability might have on the downstream activities of the supply chain and how the fine jewellery business might assist various actors to meet the significant human rights challenges that exist in their supply chain. Finally, some of the available forms of remedy for a corporation’s failure to comply with responsibility to respect human rights are considered; these consist of both State-based (judicial and non-judicial) mechanisms and non-State, usually company-level, grievance mechanisms.
