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According to an RJC auditor, providers only need to promise that they carry out solid civils rights due diligence, however do not provide any type of evidence for this. Neither does the Code of Practices call for jewelersor other downstream companiesto have traceability or chain of safekeeping of their gold or diamonds. The Code of Practices is also weak in various other substantive areas, as an example, on indigenous peoples' civil liberties and on resettlement.


For example, in March 2017, the RJC had 342 participants who had not (yet) finished the audit procedure that licenses compliance with the Code of Practices. On top of that, business can join at any kind of level of their procedures. A tiny subsidiary office of a large precious jewelry firm might use for RJC subscription, without consisting of the remainder of the firm's entities.


The Code of Practices does not need companies to openly report on the concrete actions they have taken to conduct due diligencea core requirement of the OECD Guidance (black diamond jewellery). Its coverage obligations are vague and do not mention due persistance or the demand for business to report on the actions they have actually required to identify, evaluate, and reduce dangers in their supply chains

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A second RJC standard, the Chain-of-Custody Requirement, promotes traceability and is a lot more extensive, yet adherence to it is optional for RJC participants. By very early 2018, just 48 of over 1,000 participant firms had actually certified entities under the criterion, consisting of 13 jewelers. The Chain-of-Custody Standard requires companies to establish docudrama evidence of business purchases along the supply chain and to validate they are not creating damaging influences in conflict-affected and high-risk locations.


Instead, companies are permitted to choose some "entities" under their control for qualification, leaving other entities of a business uncertified. While this might allow for business to progressively switch over to even more accountable sourcing practices, the existing practice also carries the risk that a whole business enjoys the reputational advantage when the bulk of operations is not in compliance with the standard.


All RJC participant business need to go through an audit to show that they are compliant with the Code of Practices, and to obtain accreditation. Those firms that pick to acquire certification for the Chain-of-Custody Standard have to undergo a different audit. Audits are based mostly on an evaluation of the business's written policies and documentation, and find here visits to a "representative collection" of centers.

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It is not a comprehensive evaluation concerning whether the company really implements or complies with its plans throughout its operations. For instance, large firms may have procedures in several nations, and rely upon lots of distributors, but still might receive RJC accreditation based upon sees to just a few facilities under its straight control with no evaluation of many others.


Audits are meant to include questions on a wide array of human legal rights, auditors are not always qualified human civil liberties experts (tennis bracelets). When the auditors finish their record, they just submit a recap record of the audit to the RJC, not the full audit record, which is shared only with the company




While labor abuses prevail in the field, artisanal mines supply income for millions of workers and countless mining areas. Civil rights Watch thinks that the precious jewelry market should make every effort to guarantee that their efforts to reduce supply chain civils rights threats do not lead them to merely exclude all artisanal vendors from their supply chains as the "course of least resistance." Rather, they should support initiatives to define and professionalize artisanal mines and improve working conditions.


The OECD Due Diligence Support recognizes this and is advertising cost-sharing within the industry. By doing this, all firms along the supply chain share the monetary burden. A number of efforts have emerged that can help jewelers trace their gold and diamonds to mines of beginning, and a lot more sensibly source from the artisanal industry.

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About 600 grown-up miners have actually been registered at six mine websites; youngsters can not register. Accreditation of particular mines versus responsible sourcing standards can offer jewelry experts with higher assurance that the gold or diamonds they buy from those mines are not tainted by civils rights abuses. Nongovernmental companies such as Solidaridad and IMPACT can play a vital function in supporting mines to enhance methods so they have the ability to adhere to the requirement; this might include steps to tackle kid labor, improve ecological conduct, accessibility money, and establish straight call with buyers.


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Two standardscertify artisanal and small gold mines that adapt to human rights, labor legal rights, and ecological standardsthe Fairmined Criterion and the Fairtrade Gold Criterion (diamond earrings). Depending on the consumer's license with Fairmined, the gold may be completely traceable to the mine of origin, or might be mixed with various other gold.




This quantity is simply a tiny fraction of the gold used every year by several of the companies checked out in this report. Since very early 2018, 8 mines in four nations (Bolivia, Colombia, Mongolia, and Peru) were licensed, with an added 20 mining organizations functioning in the direction of certification. The Fairmined Gold Standard is presently developing a brand-new "market access" criterion that seeks to assist artisanal cash cow in the procedure towards full certification.

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It is provided under the umbrella of Fairtrade International, and permits jewelers to trace their gold back completely to the mine of origin. Fairtrade's first licensed mines remained in Peru. Over the last couple of years, the Fairtrade Foundation, Solidaridad, and other NGOs performed a program of training and assistance to artisanal and small-scale gold miners in Africa, and in very early 2017, accredited an artisanal golden goose in Uganda.