With two weeks to go to the opening of the 2013 CIBJO Congress in Tel Aviv on May 7, 2013, the fifth of the CIBJO commissions’ Special Reports has been released. Prepared by the CIBJO Ethics Commission, headed by Cecilia Gardner, the report lays out a programme designed to advance the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility in the jewellery and gemstone sectors.
In the report, Ms. Gardner suggests that a Blue Book of general advertising standards may be a useful tool to assess the advertising used to promote the image of the industry and the products it sells. “Clear guidance from a well-known and respected standards-setting organisation will work towards the goal of creating a level playing field for all companies, and promote fair dealing with consumers. Furthermore, clear and general guidance will provide standards against which companies can judge the claims they make about their products,” she writes. A
lso proposed is a complaint mechanism designed to combat misleading representations of products, and also a failure to comply with Blue Book standards. “A mechanism could be developed within the structure of CIBJO to assess allegations of non-compliance, collect the substantiation that is available, and then take corrective actions by educating the company or individual who has acted in non-compliance,” Ms. Gardner writes.
To download a full copy of the report, please CLICK HERE