CIBJO - the Confédération Internationale de la Bijouterie, Joaillerie, Orfèvrerie, des Diamants, Perles et Pierres, today rendered in English as the World Jewellery Confederation - traces its origins to a meeting of national jewellery trade federations held in 1926 to coordinate trade nomenclature and ethical standards across European borders in the aftermath of the First World War. The 1926 founding marks the start of an institutional history that has produced, over the subsequent century, the principal international standards for diamond, coloured-stone, pearl, coral, and precious-metal nomenclature and disclosure used by the global trade.

Background and motivation

The founding of CIBJO emerged from the practical difficulties of cross-border trade in the 1920s. The interwar jewellery industry was internationalising rapidly, with diamond cutting concentrated in Antwerp and Amsterdam, coloured-stone trading in Idar-Oberstein and Paris, pearl handling in the Persian Gulf and Bombay, and retail in every major European capital. Different national markets used different terminologies for the same materials - synthetic stones were variously called "reconstructed", "artificial", "scientific", or "man-made"; treated stones might or might not be disclosed; precious-metal alloys carried different fineness markings. The opportunities for confusion, and for outright deception, were considerable.

The 1926 founding congress

The founding congress of what became CIBJO was held in 1926 with representatives of the principal European jewellery federations - notably from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom - meeting to establish a confederation that would issue common standards for nomenclature and disclosure binding on its national members. The original French name reflected the linguistic dominance of French in the European luxury trade of the period, and the organisation conducted its business primarily in French through the mid-twentieth century. The founding date of 1926 has been recognised in CIBJO's own institutional history, although the modern name and current organisational structure date to a later reorganisation.

The Blue Books and the modern standards

The mature output of CIBJO is the series of Blue Books, periodically updated standards for diamonds, coloured gemstones, pearls, coral, gemmological laboratories, and precious metals, which set out the agreed terminology, disclosure requirements, and grading conventions for use across the international trade. The Diamond Blue Book defines the four-Cs vocabulary, the requirements for disclosing treatments such as fracture filling and high-pressure-high-temperature processing, and the language for synthetic versus laboratory-grown nomenclature. The Coloured Stone Blue Book covers natural-versus-synthetic disclosure, treatment categories from negligible to extensive, and trade names. The Pearl Blue Book, including the Mabe pearl standard, governs the nomenclature for natural, cultured, and treated pearls. The Blue Books are voluntary in the sense that they are issued by a trade body rather than a government, but they have been adopted by national federations and effectively function as the global trade standard.

Relationship to other bodies

CIBJO operates in the international standards space alongside several other bodies whose mandates partially overlap. The International Diamond Council sets diamond grading nomenclature, the International Coloured Gemstone Association represents the coloured-stone trade, the Responsible Jewellery Council handles ethical certification, the World Diamond Council coordinates the diamond industry's response to conflict-diamond issues, and the Kimberley Process regulates rough-diamond trade. CIBJO is distinct from these bodies in that it is the principal source of standardised nomenclature and disclosure language across all gem and precious-metal categories. It holds consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, granted in 2006, and participates in international standards work through ISO and other bodies.

The 2026 centenary and the modern role

As of 2026, CIBJO is approaching its centenary as the principal voice for nomenclature and ethical standards in the international jewellery trade. Its annual congress, held in different host cities, brings together the national federations and the principal industry organisations to update the Blue Books and to address emerging issues, most recently including the disclosure of laboratory-grown diamonds, the traceability of coloured stones, and the integration of blockchain-based provenance systems. For the practitioner, CIBJO is the body whose standards underlie the agreed vocabulary used on laboratory reports, in dealer-to-dealer invoices, and in retail disclosure: "natural", "synthetic", "laboratory-grown", "treated", "cultured", and the rest of the modern trade lexicon owe their precision in significant part to a century of CIBJO standard-making that began in 1926.