Coalition Statements & Releases
Statement: End Uyghur Forced Labour Coalition Welcomes Public Commitments by Marks & Spencer on Uyghur Forced Labour
January 6, 2021
London, UK – Today the major British multinational retailer, Marks & Spencer, publicly announced its formal commitment to cut all ties with suppliers implicated in Uyghur forced labour and to ban any sourcing from the Uyghur Region, from cotton to finished garments.
Press Release: End Uyghur Forced Labor Coalition Demands Companies Disclose Corporate Lobbying Against the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act
December 15, 2020
Today, the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region (Coalition) has written to 17 leading consumer companies – adidas, Amazon, Apple, Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Gap, Heinz, Inditex, Kohl’s, L Brands, Nike, Nordstrom, PVH, Ross, Target, TJX and Walmart – demanding that they come clean about their stance on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (S.3471).
Press Release: Global responsible businesses must address Uyghur rights violations in China
November 16, 2020
Human rights advocates and Uyghur groups are calling on business to keep their human rights obligations in the Uyghur Region in the foreground as they participate in this year’s UN Forum on Business and Human Rights.
Press Release: UK Parliament Calls Leading Apparel Brands to Testify on their Potential Complicity in Forced Uyghur Labour
November 4, 2020
On Thursday, 5th November the Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Committee of the UK Parliament will hold a hearing to determine, “the extent to which business in the UK are exploiting the forced labor of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region of China.” Companies operating in the UK were called to submit evidence including: Adidas, Amazon, BooHoo Group, Gap (Gap Inc.), H&M Group, IKEA, Marks and Spencer, Nike, Puma, Stella McCartney, The North Face (VF Corporation), The Walt Disney Company, TikTok (ByteDance), Victoria’s Secret, and Zara (Inditex). For the first time the companies are facing direct scrutiny of their supply chains.
Statement: Human rights, labour and investor organisations restate call for a Regional WRO, and press for transparency and robust enforcement
September 15, 2020
On September 14, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced five new withhold release orders (WROs) in response to China’s widespread use of forced and prison labour in the Uyghur Region. These WROs are recognition that the advocacy of Uyghur groups, human rights organizations, trade unions and investors who have documented the use of forced labour in global supply chains linked to the Uyghur Region is paying off. However, the WROs remain far short of what is necessary to change the behavior not only of Beijing but of the companies that benefit from forced labour.
Press Release: 180+ Orgs Demand Apparel Brands End Complicity in Uyghur Forced Labour
July 23, 2020
Today, 72 Uyghur rights groups are joined by over 100 civil society organisations and labour unions from around the world in calling on apparel brands and retailers to stop using forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (“Uyghur Region”), known to local people as East Turkistan, and end their complicity in the Chinese government’s human rights abuses. The groups have issued a call to action seeking brand commitments to cut all ties with suppliers implicated in forced labour and end all sourcing from the Uyghur Region, from cotton to finished garments, within twelve months.