The United Nations has decried the sale of conflict diamonds, arguing that their trade finances armies in fighting against legitimate governments and perpetrating human rights abuses, and prolongs devastating wars. It points to the UNITA rebels in Angola and to the Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone (who it states are financed by the government of Liberia, also through diamond sales) as purveyors of conflict diamonds.
The UN is attempting to implement certification procedures to decrease the number of illicit diamonds on the world market. The World Diamond Congress adopted at Antwerp on July 19, 2000, a resolution to strengthen the diamond industry's ability to block sales of conflict diamonds.
Countries such as Canada have used concerns about conflict diamonds to present domestically-produced diamonds as an ethical alternative which avoids the risk of unknowingly purchasing a blood diamond.
Other substances are sometimes sold the same way as conflict diamonds, such as coltan.