In the midst of planning the wedding of the year, Prince William and Kate Middleton have been urged by the Fairtrade Foundation to choose only fairly traded and fairly mined gold for their wedding jewellery.
Fairtrade have launched a petition on the global Go Petition website to request the young Royals to choose their jewellery only from those that are accredited with Fairtrade and Fairmined certifications.
The online petition reads: “We, the undersigned, congratulate Prince William and Kate Middleton on their engagement and imminent wedding.
“As part of their special day, we would like them to choose Fairtrade and Fairmined gold for their wedding jewellery.”
Fairtrade introduced these certifications as an attempt to protect the human rights of the approximately 100 million people who are forced by circumstance to work in small-scale mining. These miners work in unsafe and exploitative conditions mainly in areas such as Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Fairtrade and Fairmined launched a certified gold jewellery range last week. The range includes wedding and engagement ring, earrings and necklaces. All the jewellery in the range is guaranteed that its miners work in safe conditions and receive a fair price for their work in producing it.
The certification process is the result of a landmark partnership between the miners, the Alliance for Responsible Mining, the Fairtrade Foundation, other campaigners and jewellery companies.
Fairtrade Ambassador Livia Firth stated: “We associate gold with love and beauty but there is often nothing beautiful about the way that gold is produced.
“Tens of millions of small-scale gold miners risk their lives in often appalling conditions and get a raw deal for their strenuous efforts.”
Jenny Torres Delgado, a Fairtrade miner based in Peru said: “I would ask the people in the UK to understand that when they buy our gold, they’ll be doing a good thing and helping many women who work hard and have to struggle to get the gold.”