CIBJO Met Over CRJP, Gem Lab’s Standards Inconsistencies

The Executive Committee of CIBJO met this week in Milan to discuss “a number of urgent issues” on its agenda. Among the subjects discussed were CIBJO’s relationship with the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices (CRJP), the revision of the diamond-related section of CIBJO’s Blue Book and the variance of operating procedures and grading standards used in gem labs worldwide and CIBJO's role in resolving them.

CIBJO’s Executive Committee is the supreme decision-making forum of the World Jewellery Confederation.

The first day of the meeting was dominated by discussion about CIBJO’s future association with CRJP. The Executive Committee reaffirmed President Gaetano Cavalieri's letter to CRJP informing them CIBJO was withdrawing from the council. CIBJO, however, is prepared to consider re-engaging CRJP, if it acts consistently with CIBJO’s role in the industry.

“We would like to continue to engage CRJP, but only on condition that its members agree to enact changes to the council’s structure and operation which will make it accessible to all participants in our industry - large and small - who support the principles on which consumer confidence in our business must be based,” Cavalieri said in his address to the meeting.

The Executive Committee called on the CIBJO Diamond Commission to complete a revision of the diamond section of the organization’s Blue Book. The CIBJO Blue Book is a definitive set of standards for the grading, methodology and nomenclature of diamonds, colored gemstones and pearls. The original version of the diamond section was compiled 30 years ago; it is intended that the revised section will account for new technologies.

The Executive Committee discussed the proliferation of gem labs in different countries and ways in which CIBJO could act to coordinate both operating procedures and grading systems. The Executive Committee also decided to organize a meeting of the CIBJO laboratory steering committee, with the aim of formulating strategy proposals for CIBJO and to consider organizing a gathering of laboratory representatives, possibly at the CIBJO Congress in Vancouver.