Is your jewellery ethical?| Fameo Jewellery Boutique

Is your jewellery ethical?

We are committed to operating our business, assuring that you can rely with confidence on our professional and ethical standards, when buying jewellery from Fameo Online Jewellery Boutique.

Naturally we support the Kimberley process, which is a certification system, which attempts to guarantee that diamonds are conflict-free. Unfortunately, the Kimberley process does not certify fair trade practice, environmental and social standards, nor does it address issues with other precious stones, which come from all over the world, including war zones. There is a lot of speculation and marketing exploitation of the term ethical jewellery, especially when it comes as a cheap and easy option of simply printing "conflict-free" on the invoice or calling to ban Myanmar gemstones (i.e. Burmese rubies). These claims do not make jewellery ethical, nor does it actually guarantee that the stones are conflict free, because proving the stones origin, is a big challenge and in some cases an impossible task.

The truth is, that if your diamond is not "bloody", it's probably "sweaty" and always overpriced. The diamond market is carefully controlled by mainly one organization - De Beers, that comprises of many companies involved in rough diamond exploration, diamond mining and diamond trading. The various companies within De Beers "family of companies" enjoys a monopoly in Botswana and almost a virtual monopoly in diamond supply in the rest of the world. In August 2007 the British charity War on Want published a report accusing De Beers parent company Anglo American of profiting from the abuse of people in developing countries in which the company operates. In the Philippines and South Africa, local communities have faced severe repression for protesting against Anglo American’s operations. In Ghana and Mali, local communities see little of the huge profits being made by Anglo American, but suffer from the devastating impact of its mines.

We, at Fameo, only deal with small independent diamond suppliers that provide us with untreated, conflict-free, fair traded and natural diamonds either from India or Russia and our precious (colour) stones sourcing policies, aims to contribute to the alleviation of poverty in developing regions of the world, by establishing a system that allows small miners and gemstone traders in developing regions to gain access to the UK market. We are dealing directly with people who mine and cut top quality gemstones, share skills and increase employment opportunity within their communities.

Fameo Ltd is a full member of the British Jewellers Association (BJA) and adheres to the BJA’s Code of Ethics. We are transparent in our business, and we emphasis on fair and conflict-free gemstone and diamond trade. Compliance is kept with all UK legislation, industry standards and beyond, by providing you with full discloser of materials used in Fameo branded jewellery and providing grading specifications for every precious stone, pearl, diamond and precious metal part.

For more information, please refer to the Code of Ethics and Conflict diamonds policy.

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