Call to Action

Call to action on human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Updated July 2025

All companies across all industries must extricate their value chains from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region), known to local people as East Turkistan, to ensure they are not unwittingly bolstering the government of China’s repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples. Companies must urgently trace their value chain and address any points of exposure to Uyghur forced labour at every tier of the value chain. This includes identifying whether any suppliers outside of the Uyghur Region have participated in state-sponsored labour transfer programmes. Details on how companies should carry out this Call to Action are set out below in the “Company Actions to Exit” section.

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The government of China is perpetrating human rights abuses on a massive scale in the Uyghur Region, targeting the Uyghur population and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples on the basis of their religion and ethnicity. An estimated 1 to 1.8 million Uyghurs have been subject to arbitrary mass detention in internment camps termed “re-education” camps by the Chinese government. Within these camps, detainees have been routinely subjected to physical and psychological torture, sexual violence, and forced labour.

The government’s persecution of the Uyghur population has been demonstrated by robust and credible evidence, gathered through witness testimony, Chinese state media, Chinese government records, and satellite imagery, and in reports from UN bodies, academic experts, non-governmental organisations, and survivors themselves. Investigations show that the breadth of this policy creates significant risk of the presence of forced labour at virtually any workplace, industrial or agricultural, in the Uyghur Region. 

The state-imposed forced labour programmes have been implemented through three primary mechanisms: forced labour of internment camp detainees, forced labour transfers in and outside of the Region, and forced prison labour. This forced labour is in violation of ILO Conventions No. 29 (Forced Labour Convention) and No. 105 (Abolition of Forced Labour Convention). Forced labour has enabled, and been enabled by, other egregious human rights violations, such as mass surveillance, arbitrary detention, rape, torture, political ‘re-education’, and forced sterilisations. The abuses are bolstered by a pervasive, technology-enabled system of surveillance.

The severity of the violations has led UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the former High Commissioner for Human Rights, to assess forced labour in the Uyghur Region and wider abuses as possibly constituting crimes against humanity. Further, several governments, national parliaments, and an independent tribunal have determined that the human rights violations amount to genocide.

In recent years, there are indications that state-imposed forced labour programmes are changing. Some detainees appear to have been released from the camps and some smaller camps may have been closed. A significant number of people have been moved from camps into long prison sentences, typically without a fair judicial process and often for engaging in everyday activities that are not crimes under national laws. However, the lack of independent access to the Uyghur Region, combined with the transnational repression faced by survivors and those with links to the Region, makes it difficult to verify these changes. While some camps may be closing, Xinjiang government data indicates labour transfers intensified from 2021. Research suggests that this now constitutes the primary forced labour system in the Uyghur Region, which has become more normalised and institutionalised. The regional government’s efforts to forcibly transfer Uyghurs and other targeted groups outside of the Region have also increased.

As these state-imposed systems change and become more difficult to identify and verify, they must not be misconstrued as less egregious. The broad objectives – systemic ethnic and religious persecution – remain the same and must be kept in view by the international community.   

Operating in the Uyghur Region in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights is a practical impossibility. There are no valid means for companies to verify that any workplace in the Uyghur Region is free of forced labour or to prevent the use of forced labour in these workplaces in line with human rights due diligence. Worker interviews, which are essential to the methodology of any labour or human rights investigations, cannot generate reliable information in these circumstances. No worker can speak candidly to factory auditors about forced labour or other human rights issues without placing themselves and their families at risk of brutal retaliation; there are widespread restrictions and repression of fundamental freedoms and human rights defenders; and civic space has been shut down. Numerous audit firms have pulled out of the Uyghur Region due to the impossibility to conduct audits. Given the pervasive scope of the abuses, buyers therefore need to operate on the assumption that all products produced in part or in whole in the Uyghur Region are at high risk of being tainted by forced labour. 

Regulatory developments have made the demands of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region a legal requirement. In 2022, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) came into force, which establishes a rebuttable presumption that the importation of any goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly, or in part, in the Uyghur Region, or produced by certain entities implicated in forced labour, is prohibited by Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and not entitled to entry to the United States. The UFLPA, in effect, codifies into law the central elements of the Coalition’s Call to Action. 

The European Union’s Forced Labour Regulation will prevent the trade of goods made with forced labour and covers both the import of goods and the trade of goods within and from the EU bloc. In the UK, the Court of Appeal ruled that companies that knowingly or with suspicion import goods made under criminal circumstances—such as through Uyghur forced labour—can now be prosecuted under the Proceeds of Crime Act for trading criminal property.  

Only by taking the actions enumerated in the following “Company Actions to Exit the Uyghur Region and Prevent Use of Forced Labour of Uyghur and Other Turkic and Muslim-Majority Peoples” can companies act responsibly and prevent their supply chains from being linked to the forced labour of Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples. 

COMPANY ACTIONS TO EXIT THE UYGHUR REGION AND PREVENT USE OF FORCED LABOUR OF UYGHUR AND OTHER TURKIC AND MUSLIM-MAJORITY PEOPLES

In order to ensure that [Company] is not, in its supply chain, contributing to or benefitting from forced labour of the Uyghur and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples, [Company] will undertake the actions enumerated below.

A. Identify and map through all credible means possible —including by reference to reports by human rights and labour rights organisations the following business relationships:

1. Suppliers and sub-suppliers with any facilities located in the Uyghur Region.
   
2. Suppliers and sub-suppliers based outside the Uyghur Region that have subsidiaries or operations located in the Uyghur Region. These business relationships must be identified and mapped regardless of whether the products the supplier makes for [Company] are produced in the Uyghur Region. 
   1. [Company] will conduct appropriate due diligence in facilities outside the Uyghur Region from which it sources its own products.
   2. With respect to suppliers’ facilities from which the company does not source, refer to credible evidence from third-party sources, including reports from other companies or from independent investigators.
      
3. Suppliers and sub-suppliers that have participated in state-sponsored labour transfer programmes of Uyghurs or other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples outside of the Region. In the case of suppliers with multiple factories/workplaces, these suppliers must be identified and mapped, regardless of whether the specific factory/workplace providing goods to the [Company] employs workers from the Uyghur Region through a state-sponsored labour transfer programme.
   
4. Business relationships with any supplier in China and globally that sources inputs produced in the Uyghur Region for [Company]’s products.

B. Upon identification of any of the business relationships described in Paragraph A, [Company] must operate on the assumption that its supply chain is linked to the forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic and Muslim-majority groups. Accordingly, [Company] will take action to prevent the use of Uyghur Region-linked forced labour through the following steps:

1. Immediately disengage from business relationships with any supplier or sub-supplier located in the Uyghur Region.
2. Disengage from business relationships with any supplier based outside the Uyghur Region that has subsidiaries or operations in the Uyghur Region, regardless of whether the products the supplier makes for [Company] are produced in the Uyghur Region.
3. Disengage from business relationships with any supplier whereby there is credible evidence that the supplier has participated in a state-sponsored labour transfer program at a workplace outside the Uyghur Region, regardless of whether the specific factory/workplace providing goods to the [Company] is the site where such workers were placed. [Company] will direct all suppliers not to participate in state-sponsored labour transfer programmes for [Company]’s own products. 
4. Instruct all suppliers in China and globally to end all sourcing of all finished products or inputs produced in the Uyghur Region for [Company]’s own products. [Company] will also instruct all suppliers globally to end their business relationships with any company that would be prohibited under Paragraph A for the production, manufacture, sale, or extraction of inputs for [Company]’s own products. [Company] will assist suppliers to identify alternate sources of finished products or inputs, where needed, and adjust its purchasing practices as necessary to enable this.
5. Disengage from business relationships with all suppliers in China and globally that do not agree to take the steps in B(4) and do not provide proof that they have done so. Where exit of relationships, outside of the Uyghur Region, is required, [Company] will adhere to responsible exit policies.
6. As a matter of best practice, encourage all suppliers to end all sourcing from the Uyghur Region and any business relationships with any company that would be prohibited under B(1-3) for all production, not just with respect to [Company]’s products.

C. If [Company] is an importer into the United States, [Company] will:

1. Comply fully with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) across its entire supply chain for all retail markets, and not just for those goods that it imports into the US. Companies will thereby uphold a single global standard and not create bifurcated supply chains, a scenario in which a company operates two parallel supply chains: one tainted by Uyghur forced labour and one that is compliant with the UFLPA and free of Uyghur forced labour.
2. Refrain from re-exporting any goods denied entry to the US under the auspices of the UFLPA and attempt to sell those goods in other markets.

These actions remain necessary until human and labour rights organisations, endorsed by representatives of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region, report that the human rights situation in the Uyghur Region has improved, forced labour has ceased, and preventive reforms have been implemented.

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