Firms were already responding by trying to find sources for products outside Xinjiang, he said. Coca-Cola declined to comment. We think we have to diversify the supply, he said. Swedish public procurer SKL Kommentus Inkpscentral, the Swedish Regions and the Church of Sweden have produced a joint letter requiring their suppliers to take certain actions following concerns over the Uyghur forced labour. Nike also paid outside firms like Cornerstone Government Affairs, Ogilvy, Capitol Counsel, GrayRobinson, American Continental Group, DiNino Associates and Empire Consulting Group more than $400,000 this year to lobby on issues including the act. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce declined to comment on lobbying, instead providing a letter it sent to Congress in November with seven other industry groups. Copyright 2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved, FanDuel Promotes Compliance Chief to Head of Legal, Short Seller Carson Block Sued Over $14 Million Whistleblower Award, JPMorgan Must Face Former Compliance Employees Lawsuit, Judge Rules, Improve Working Capital Without Renegotiating Terms, For the Chemical Industry, a Path to Lower Emissions and Sustainable Growth, Walmart BST Sales Event - School supplies for as low as 25, Back-to-School Event: Extra 25% off sitewide - JCPenney coupon code, Save 15% or more on the Best Buy deal of the Day, Up to 40% off + additional 20% off all markdown styles with Nike coupon code, Summer Sale: 50% off select styles + free shipping, Nancy Pelosi to Visit Taiwan Despite Warnings From China, IRS Changes Guidelines for Inherited IRAs, Causing Confusion and Pushback, People Start Buying More Essentials at Dollar Stores, Facing Labor Shortages, Pella Reinvents the Company Town in Rural Iowa, Renters Finally See Market Starting to Cool After Record Growth, Opinion: The Schumer-Manchin Tax Increase on Everyone, Opinion: Why I Support Reform Prosecutors, Opinion: Bidens Climate Plans Are Unsustainable, Opinion: Youd Be Stupid Not to Evaluate Risk, How Putins Recent On-Camera Appearances Challenge Strongman Image, Same Surgery, Different Prices: Why Hospital Costs Vary So Much, Video: Ukrainian Grain Shipment Leaves Odessa for First Time Since War Started, Watch: Las Vegas Streets, Casinos Hit by Flash Flooding, McKinney Fire Leaves Two Dead and More Than 55,000 Acres Burned. How Swedens horoscope is affected by current transit, Jimmy Stewart Roles Are Still So Relevant. In a statement reported in The Guardian, PVH Corporation, the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, denied it sourced finished products from Xinjiang. . Dozens of major global brands are accused of complicity in the mass repression of China's Uighur Muslim minority by sourcing their supplies of cotton products from factories exploiting the people's forced labor. ASPI estimatesat least 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang and assigned to factoriesin a range of supply chains including electronics, textiles, and automotivesunder a central government policy known as Xinjiang Aid. For companies maintaining relationships with Chinese suppliers, there are practical difficulties. A lot of companies are flat-footed right now, said Her advice to companies is to carefully consider the language they use in requests to suppliers, avoiding hot button terms like directly citing the U.S. forced-labor law and instead making more neutral requests to learn about where they are sourcing their inputs. WASHINGTON Nike and Coca-Cola are among the major companies and business groups lobbying Congress to weaken a bill that would ban imported goods made with forced labor in Chinas Xinjiang region, according to congressional staff members and other people familiar with the matter, as well as lobbying records that show vast spending on the legislation. Apple disputed the claim that it had tried to weaken the legislation, saying it supported efforts to strengthen American regulations and believes the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act should become law. in Germany (VR 38088 B). Explore the big challenges, opportunities, debates and frameworks for business and human rights. Events | Jobs | Media | Data Usage & Cookies | Contact Us. The report said that the cotton textile industry in the region has made remarkable progress in creating jobs, increasing farmers' income and improving people's living standard. Reporting by Michael Martina, Richa Naidu, Aishwarya Venugopal and Jeffrey Dastin; editing by Jonathan Oatis, How the other half lives: luxury companies thrive, Indian private equity firm Lighthouse in talks to raise $400 million fund, Italy's Ali Group sees shelter from economic storm in Welbilt deal, Carmaker BYD to recall more Tang DM hybrids in China over battery faults, Bentley first-half profit more than doubles, boosted by customised cars, See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. 
Apple, Inditex, Nike and PVH provided responses to the Coalitions disclosure request. These programs have all been identified in connection to the human rights abuses of the Uyghur population as a whole. Chinas vast campaign of suppressing and forcibly assimilating Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang has attracted the scorn of politicians and consumers around the world. Roughly one in five cotton garments sold around the world contain cotton or yarn from Xinjiang, the heartland of the majority-Muslim Uighur people, a coalition of more than 180 rights group said in a letter published Thursday. Earlier this year, we conducted a detailed investigation with our suppliers in China and found no evidence of forced labor on Apple production lines and we are continuing to monitor this closely.. U.S. Customs, for example, must report directly to Congress any Xinjiang-tied products it allows into the U.S. along with the agencys reasons. The appearance of such links does not constitute endorsement of the websites they lead to or the information contained therein, over which we exercise no editorial control. Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on China's crackdown on Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang region, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said many U.S. companies had not woken up to the fact that they were "profiting" from the Chinese government's abuses. The Wall Street Journal news department was not involved in the creation of this content. The End Uyghur Forced Labor Coalition is doing important work to continue bringing awareness to the issue and to protect the rights of this vulnerable minority population. Since the release of ASPIs report, H&M has ended a relationship with a Chinese yarn supplier due to its ties to forced labor. Disclaimer: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and its collaborative partners take no position on the diverse views presented in linked material within the database, nor can we guarantee the factual accuracy of all the articles and reports we make available. An internal report claims the face-scanning system could trigger a Uighur alarm, sparking concerns that the software could help fuel Chinas crackdown on the mostly Muslim minority group. Strengthening Australias Modern Slavery Act: Step one in revitalising Australias approach to corporate respect for human rights, Mitsubishi Electric (part of Mitsubishi Group), Victoria's Secret (part of Limited Brands), Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (part of Minebea Co., Ltd.), Agriculture/food/beverage/tobacco/fishing: General, Poverty/Development/Economic & social rights: General, Racial/ethnic/caste/origin discrimination, Health: General (including workplace health & safety), Socially-responsible investing & shareholder activism, International investment agreements & policy, Security issues & conflict zones: General, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, UN Sustainable Development Goals/Millennium Development Goals, Investment, trade, globalisation: General, Please click here for more information related to alleged forced labour abuses in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Uyghurs for sale: Re-education, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang, Japanese apparel co. United Arrows reportedly stops using Xinjiang cotton, China: Forced labour red flags in car battery supply chain, Global coalition urges companies not to dump Uyghur-linked goods in non-US markets in wake of forced labour ban. One client, a global technology company, in February identified a problematic Xinjiang-linked supplier and severed the relationship, he said. Its sober reading, but grievously overdue. In March 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) published a reportUyghurs for sale: Re-education, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang, whichidentified83 foreign and Chinese companies as allegedly directly or indirectly benefiting from the use of Uyghur workers outside Xinjiang through potentially abusive labour transfer programs. But for many companies, fully investigating and eliminating any potential ties to forced labor there has been difficult, given the opacity of Chinese supply chains and the limited access of auditors to a region where the Chinese government tightly restricts peoples movements. APSI states: In factories far away from home, [detained Uighur workers] typically live in segregated dormitories, undergo organized Mandarin and ideological training outside working hours, are subject to constant surveillance, and are forbidden from participating in religious observances. The Chinese government has in recent years rounded up at least 1 million Uighurs and other Turkic and Muslim people, and put them in prison-like detention camps. The report identified 27 factories in China that employ the use of labor transferred from Xinjiang. "The only way brands can ensure they are not profiting from the exploitation is by exiting the region and ending relationships with suppliers propping up this Chinese government system," said Jasmine O'Connor OBE, CEO of Anti-Slavery International, one of the letter's signatories. The withhold-release order will apply to products including apparel, textiles, tomato seeds, canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, and will apply at all US ports of entry. It has been well documented that Chinas Uighur detention camps have worked to systematically strip the group of its cultural identity, language and religion in reprehensible conditions. Human rights groups and news reports have linked many multinational companies to suppliers there, including tying Coca-Cola to sugar sourced from Xinjiang, and documenting Uighur workers in a factory in Qingdao that makes Nike shoes. Greg Rossiter, the director of global communications at Nike, said the company did not lobby against the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act but instead had constructive discussions with congressional staff aides aimed at eliminating forced labor and protecting human rights. This report examines the extent to which the forced labour of Uyghurs and other ethnic
Alongside its core work providing a platform for Human Rights advocates, the Resource Centre runs several focused programme areas and regularly releases briefings and reports on areas of particular interest. Raw materials commonly associated with China can also be found elsewhere, he said, adding that India has ample supplies of rare-earth materials now commonly sourced from China. A Short Blanket for the Coronavirus Long Night, Political Elections in Iraq: A View from the Christian Community. Adidas specifically stated that it does not have a current relationship with the company and is investigating this claim. The report identified27 factories in nine Chinese provinces that are using Uyghur labour transferred from Xinjiang since 2017. Apple also paid outside firms this year to lobby on another bill, the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act of 2020. If youre ready to confront whether your purchasing supports one of the factories identified in APSIs report, you can find a thorough list of the companies that are sourcing from these factories and what products they produce in the reports appendix. "Virtually the entire apparel industry is tainted by forced Uyghur and Turkic Muslim labor," the groups said, using an alternative spelling for Uighurs. But this myth obfuscates a multitude of tragic truths that we can no longer deny,one of these being that the goods that fill our shopping carts may be the spoils of de facto slave labor in China. You're browsing our English site, so by default we are only showing content in English. The complexity of the global supply chain has undoubtedly made it more difficult for global corporations to monitor the connections of their suppliers to forced labor in China, but ASPI reached out to all 83 brands included in the report to confirm details of their suppliers as listed in the report. Where companies responded before publication, they have included their relevant clarifications in their report. Business Insider has contacted Badger Sport for comment on its ties to Xinjiang. a partner at law firm Covington & Burling LLP, said that while no solution is going to give 100% comfort to a company, making a strong effort to know its supply chains can demonstrate a good-faith commitment to compliance. Now APSIs report makes clear that when Uighur detainees are released to vocational training, their suffering is far from over. Business Insider has also contacted Gap for comment. "Whenever we receive proof of forced labor, we take action and suspend privileges to sell," an Amazon spokesperson said. Technology offers some solutions. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Companies "tainted" by forced Uighur or Turkic Muslim labor include including Gap, Adidas, H&M, and Calvin Klein, the activists added.
Apple, Inditex, Nike and PVH provided responses to the Coalitions disclosure request. These programs have all been identified in connection to the human rights abuses of the Uyghur population as a whole. Chinas vast campaign of suppressing and forcibly assimilating Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang has attracted the scorn of politicians and consumers around the world. Roughly one in five cotton garments sold around the world contain cotton or yarn from Xinjiang, the heartland of the majority-Muslim Uighur people, a coalition of more than 180 rights group said in a letter published Thursday. Earlier this year, we conducted a detailed investigation with our suppliers in China and found no evidence of forced labor on Apple production lines and we are continuing to monitor this closely.. U.S. Customs, for example, must report directly to Congress any Xinjiang-tied products it allows into the U.S. along with the agencys reasons. The appearance of such links does not constitute endorsement of the websites they lead to or the information contained therein, over which we exercise no editorial control. Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on China's crackdown on Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang region, Republican Senator Marco Rubio said many U.S. companies had not woken up to the fact that they were "profiting" from the Chinese government's abuses. The Wall Street Journal news department was not involved in the creation of this content. The End Uyghur Forced Labor Coalition is doing important work to continue bringing awareness to the issue and to protect the rights of this vulnerable minority population. Since the release of ASPIs report, H&M has ended a relationship with a Chinese yarn supplier due to its ties to forced labor. Disclaimer: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and its collaborative partners take no position on the diverse views presented in linked material within the database, nor can we guarantee the factual accuracy of all the articles and reports we make available. An internal report claims the face-scanning system could trigger a Uighur alarm, sparking concerns that the software could help fuel Chinas crackdown on the mostly Muslim minority group. Strengthening Australias Modern Slavery Act: Step one in revitalising Australias approach to corporate respect for human rights, Mitsubishi Electric (part of Mitsubishi Group), Victoria's Secret (part of Limited Brands), Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (part of Minebea Co., Ltd.), Agriculture/food/beverage/tobacco/fishing: General, Poverty/Development/Economic & social rights: General, Racial/ethnic/caste/origin discrimination, Health: General (including workplace health & safety), Socially-responsible investing & shareholder activism, International investment agreements & policy, Security issues & conflict zones: General, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, UN Sustainable Development Goals/Millennium Development Goals, Investment, trade, globalisation: General, Please click here for more information related to alleged forced labour abuses in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Uyghurs for sale: Re-education, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang, Japanese apparel co. United Arrows reportedly stops using Xinjiang cotton, China: Forced labour red flags in car battery supply chain, Global coalition urges companies not to dump Uyghur-linked goods in non-US markets in wake of forced labour ban. One client, a global technology company, in February identified a problematic Xinjiang-linked supplier and severed the relationship, he said. Its sober reading, but grievously overdue. In March 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) published a reportUyghurs for sale: Re-education, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang, whichidentified83 foreign and Chinese companies as allegedly directly or indirectly benefiting from the use of Uyghur workers outside Xinjiang through potentially abusive labour transfer programs. But for many companies, fully investigating and eliminating any potential ties to forced labor there has been difficult, given the opacity of Chinese supply chains and the limited access of auditors to a region where the Chinese government tightly restricts peoples movements. APSI states: In factories far away from home, [detained Uighur workers] typically live in segregated dormitories, undergo organized Mandarin and ideological training outside working hours, are subject to constant surveillance, and are forbidden from participating in religious observances. The Chinese government has in recent years rounded up at least 1 million Uighurs and other Turkic and Muslim people, and put them in prison-like detention camps. The report identified 27 factories in China that employ the use of labor transferred from Xinjiang. "The only way brands can ensure they are not profiting from the exploitation is by exiting the region and ending relationships with suppliers propping up this Chinese government system," said Jasmine O'Connor OBE, CEO of Anti-Slavery International, one of the letter's signatories. The withhold-release order will apply to products including apparel, textiles, tomato seeds, canned tomatoes and tomato sauce, and will apply at all US ports of entry. It has been well documented that Chinas Uighur detention camps have worked to systematically strip the group of its cultural identity, language and religion in reprehensible conditions. Human rights groups and news reports have linked many multinational companies to suppliers there, including tying Coca-Cola to sugar sourced from Xinjiang, and documenting Uighur workers in a factory in Qingdao that makes Nike shoes. Greg Rossiter, the director of global communications at Nike, said the company did not lobby against the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act but instead had constructive discussions with congressional staff aides aimed at eliminating forced labor and protecting human rights. This report examines the extent to which the forced labour of Uyghurs and other ethnic
Alongside its core work providing a platform for Human Rights advocates, the Resource Centre runs several focused programme areas and regularly releases briefings and reports on areas of particular interest. Raw materials commonly associated with China can also be found elsewhere, he said, adding that India has ample supplies of rare-earth materials now commonly sourced from China. A Short Blanket for the Coronavirus Long Night, Political Elections in Iraq: A View from the Christian Community. Adidas specifically stated that it does not have a current relationship with the company and is investigating this claim. The report identified27 factories in nine Chinese provinces that are using Uyghur labour transferred from Xinjiang since 2017. Apple also paid outside firms this year to lobby on another bill, the Uyghur Forced Labor Disclosure Act of 2020. If youre ready to confront whether your purchasing supports one of the factories identified in APSIs report, you can find a thorough list of the companies that are sourcing from these factories and what products they produce in the reports appendix. "Virtually the entire apparel industry is tainted by forced Uyghur and Turkic Muslim labor," the groups said, using an alternative spelling for Uighurs. But this myth obfuscates a multitude of tragic truths that we can no longer deny,one of these being that the goods that fill our shopping carts may be the spoils of de facto slave labor in China. You're browsing our English site, so by default we are only showing content in English. The complexity of the global supply chain has undoubtedly made it more difficult for global corporations to monitor the connections of their suppliers to forced labor in China, but ASPI reached out to all 83 brands included in the report to confirm details of their suppliers as listed in the report. Where companies responded before publication, they have included their relevant clarifications in their report. Business Insider has contacted Badger Sport for comment on its ties to Xinjiang. a partner at law firm Covington & Burling LLP, said that while no solution is going to give 100% comfort to a company, making a strong effort to know its supply chains can demonstrate a good-faith commitment to compliance. Now APSIs report makes clear that when Uighur detainees are released to vocational training, their suffering is far from over. Business Insider has also contacted Gap for comment. "Whenever we receive proof of forced labor, we take action and suspend privileges to sell," an Amazon spokesperson said. Technology offers some solutions. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Companies "tainted" by forced Uighur or Turkic Muslim labor include including Gap, Adidas, H&M, and Calvin Klein, the activists added.