The European Union should maintain its travel restrictions and asset freezes on President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle until Zimbabwe carries out the concrete human rights reforms set out in the 2008 Global Political Agreement.

Diamonds from the Marange fields of eastern Zimbabwe are mined under highly abusive conditions – the latest “blood diamonds” of the twenty-first century. To its credit, the Israeli government has tried to put pressure on Zimbabwe to improve these conditions. In the coming year, as chair of the global group that monitors the diamond industry, Israel will have the opportunity to do even more.

You would think that, with its vibrant diamond trade, South Africa would be first in line to prevent the smuggling of diamonds from Zimbabwe. Instead, South Africa has played a more equivocal role with its neighbour. The result is that South Africa is at risk of endangering its own diamond industry.

Human Rights Watch writes to the heads of major diamond suppliers urging them to publicly commit to not purchase or sell diamonds from Zimbabwe.

As Americans flock to stores for holiday shopping, some plan to buy diamonds for loved ones. But that special gift could have a bloody past. If the diamonds are from Zimbabwe, the stones could have been mined under the control of Zimbabwe's army, which Human Rights Watch found has killed more than 200 people, engaged in torture and used forced labor, including children, in the nation's Marange diamond fields.

The Commonwealth has developed a 21st-century role – as a haven for serial human rights abusers.

The credibility of the world's "blood diamond" monitoring group has been damaged after its failure this week to suspend Zimbabwe despite overwhelming evidence of serious human rights abuses and smuggling in the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe.

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, scheduled to meet in Swakopmund, Namibia, from November 2 to 5, 2009, should immediately suspend Zimbabwe for continuing human rights abuses and widespread smuggling in the Marange diamond fields.