Verbatim from the on line petition of the International Campaign for the Rohingya (ICR) named “Tell Cartier to stop using gems sourced from Myanmar”. “Tiffany & Co. confirmed its boycott of gems from Myanmar, though Cartier will not embrace the same cause. Even though Cartier is among the founders, in 2005, of the Council for Responsible Jewelry Practices, with a highly hypocritical action, it uses gems from Myanmar in at least 4 items of the new Tutti Frutti collection”. The reply was prompt: “Following the continuous process meant to ensure the ethical origin of the supply, Cartier decided to stop purchasing gems from Myanmar starting from 8 December”.
70,000 digital signatures triggered the indignation of the international public opinion caused by the escalation of the persecutory policies of the Indo-Chinese country against the Rohingya minority, resulting, de facto, in the deportation of about 600,000 people. The campaign is now targeting other prestigious high jewellery maisons, first of all Bulgari that, as we are writing, is not supporting the boycott of Burmese rubies, sapphires and jade.
Those who, to learn more, investigated on the net using search engines would be perplexed. As for the ban concerning Burmese gems, results on the boycott emerge that prove to be practically identical concerning years 2007 and 2017. After exactly 10 years, the international public opinion urges the big brands to apply retaliation on the Burmese export of precious stones. In fact, in 2008, at the apex of a rise in sanctions meant to target the sanguinary Burmese military tyranny, the Senate of Washington passes the Jade Act, a resolution completing the framework of the previous limitations to trade. The document establishes stricter measures against the Yangon government: American investments are blocked and the admission of Burmese citizens in the USA is strongly limited. Therefore, many products, among which rubies and jades, Burmese resources par excellence, were de facto banned from trade to the United States until October 2016. A year ago the ban was revoked also as a sign of acknowledgement of the steps made towards a democratic turn after the rehabilitation of Aung San Suu Kyi, historical figure of the opposition in Myanmar. It will be interesting to verify if the new proposal of a boycott in 2017 will provoke an equal reaction on an institutional level with a subsequent commercial embargo. The restrictions to rubies in 2008 caused controversial effects as the gemmological community considered them as perfectly circumventable while the criticised gems passed the Thailand borders and entered the international market as jewellery exported from Bangkok. However, it is a fact that the call to responsibility started with the persecution of a minority rather than with the repeated reports of abuses concerning the working conditions of miners engaged in the extraction of jade.
Gem News by Trasparenze News, published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #3, January 2018.
