Diamonds that are illegally traded to fund conflict. The term was made when rebels in some African countries like Angola or Sierra Leone used diamonds to fund movements against legitimate governments. When the problem was at its height, conflict diamonds accounted for only 4% of the world’s diamond supply, today it is less than 1%.
In 1998, the United Nations placed Angola under sanctions forbidding countries from buying diamonds from them. This was the first resolution of the UN which specifically mentioned diamonds in the context of funding the war. Reports estimated that as much as 20% of total production in the 1990s were being sold for illicit purposes, and 15% were specifically conflict in nature. By 1999, the illicit diamond trade was estimated by the World Diamond Council to have been reduced to 3.06% of the world's diamond production.
This reduction in their trade has been achieved by the diamond industry and governments adopting the Kimberley Process Certification System (2002) to assure that only legitimately sourced diamonds are traded.
Rough diamonds traded between the Kimberley Process countries are transported in a tamper resistant container and accompanied by a government validated KP certificate. Once imported and ready to be traded, a written statement accompanies all invoices guaranteeing that the diamonds or diamond jewellery are being sold from legitimate sources.
More and more jewellery shops are now very careful and lots of diamonds in diamond rings or any other kind of jewellery are guaranteed to be Conflict free nowadays. Conflict free diamonds are bought from manufacturers and site holders who buy the rough diamonds from Diamond Trading Council (marketing arm of DeBeers) who guarantee on their invoice (in writing) that their diamonds are conflict free.
Having Conflict free diamonds is nearly used to attract people to buy for example diamond rings from one shop rather than any other because they have got guaranted conflict free diamonds.
So next time you want to buy diamond rings, check if it is a Conflict free diamond.