Written evidence submitted by HOPE not hate (FL0034)
1 Introduction
1.1 HOPE not hate is the United Kingdom’s leading anti-fascist organisation, promoting hope as an antidote to the politics of hate. Whilst the focus of the organisation is predominantly focused on monitoring and defeating fascism and building community resilience in the UK, HOPE not hate could not turn a blind eye to state sponsored cultural genocide.
1.2 HOPE not hate is committed to bringing the suffering of the Uyghur community to the public consciousness and to put pressure on brands to end their usage of Uyghur forced labour. This situation can’t be allowed to exist in the shadows. We are committed to bringing the Uyghur people’s suffering to light.
1.3 To this end, HOPE not hate have been running a public awareness campaign since July 2020 to encourage members of the public to increase their understanding of the situation in Xinjiang and to take action. HOPE not hate launched a website hub and public action campaigns in July, delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
1.4 This submission has four components:
Overview of HOPE not hate campaigning on Uyghur human rights abuses.
Polling by HOPE not hate Charitable Trust on the UK’s public awareness of the plight of Uyghur people and their strong opposition to the use of forced labour.
A petition signed by over 10,000 people demanding brands tell the truth about forced Uyghur labour in their product manufacturing.
Letters to the CEOs of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Fila, Apple, BMW and Jaguar about forced Uyghur labour and the replies received.
1.5 HOPE not hate launched a website hub with a number of resources that can be found here. This included a campaign video, viewed over 87,500 times to date, that can be accessed here, as well as newsletters to our supporters.
1.6 In July 2020, HOPE not hate joined with civil society organisations and trade unions from around the world in the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region, united to end state- sponsored human rights abuses against the Uyghur people.
2 Polling on public attitudes to Uyghur human rights abuses
2.1 The world’s media have been highlighting the worsening plight of the Uyghur people for almost a decade but the eyes of the international community have all-too-often been elsewhere.
2.2 HOPE not hate Charitable Trust commissioned polling to get a better picture of public awareness of the plight of the Uyghur people.
2.3 The online polling was commissioned by HOPE not hate Charitable Trust and was conducted between 20th-21st May 2020 (Sample: 2,029 adults, sampled from across Great Britain, weighted to be nationally representative) except as below and 22-26th May 2020 (Sample: 2001 adults, sampled from across GB, weighted to be nationally representative)
2.4 The majority of people (58%) polled were unaware of the reports of Chinese authorities imprisoning between one and three million Uyghurs in internment camps in an attempt to eradicate Uyghur culture and language.
2.5 Almost three-quarters of people (72%) had no idea that well-known brands, such as BMW, Google, Gap, Adidas, Nike and Jaguar cars have been implicated in forced Uyghur labour in their Chinese factories, with only 10% having some knowledge.
2.6 However, once they were made aware, the public was adamant – an overwhelming 79% said Western companies should not be using forced Uyghur labour in their Chinese factories, with 62% saying they would reconsider buying clothing or a car if they knew it had been made by forced labour in China, and 23% were undecided.
2.7 The polling found unequivocal public backing for government action on this issue – 76% agreed that the international community should act together to force China to improve the human rights and individual freedoms of its citizens, and 67% disagreed with the idea that the human rights record of a country is of no importance to them with 54% objecting to the idea that a country’s human rights record should have no influence on the UK foreign policy.
2.8 The survey demonstrated to us exactly why the Government and the international community must take strong steps to end the usage of Uyghur forced labour. There is a public expectation for this action.
3 Petition
3.1 As the polling research suggested, the vast majority of people in the UK thought that companies should not use forced labour in their supply chains. To this end, HOPE not hate asked members of the public to add their name to a letter to the CEOs of key brands allegedly implicated in the usage of forced Uyghur labour.
3.2 10,633 members of the public co-signed the HOPE not hate letter to the CEOs of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Fila, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Apple.
3.3 As four of the brands highlighted were major sportswear manufacturers and the cotton industry has been particularly implicated in the use of forced Uyghur labour, HOPE not hate sent our letter and launched a public campaign on 17th September 2020 to coincide with London Fashion Week.
3.4 This campaign consisted of social media publicising of our letter to CEOs, a newsletter to our supporters and an op-ed article for the Fashion Roundtable, a leading fashion policy think tank that acts as secretariat to two fashion related APPGs. The full text of op-ed can be found at Appendix C. 3.5 Core component of letter to the CEOs of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Fila, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Apple:
In the Xinjiang province in northwest China as many as three million Uyghur people have been held in so-called re-education camps.
There they have been brutalised, many have been tortured, and there are even credible claims of women being subject to forced sterilisations.
We have seen reports that your businesses have used the forced labour of Uyghur people in the Chinese factories that produce your trainers, clothing and technology. Some of these factories even house re-education facilities themselves.
We demand that on behalf of your business you:
o Confirm if your products are produced using forced Uyghur labour o Commit to not use factories that use forced Uyghur labour o Review all China based operations to ensure that forced labour and human rights abuses are not occurring o End any commercial relationship with Chinese companies that are involved in the use of forced labour anywhere in their supply chain
3.6 Based on this template, each individual letter was tailored to also include details of each companies’ previous statements on the use of forced Uyghur labour to raise the inconsistencies and shortfalls in their public statements to date and to ask for further clarification and commitments.
3.7 The full text of each letter can be found in Appendix A at the end of this submission.
3.8 HOPE not hate received responses from Adidas, Puma, BMW, Apple and Jaguar Land Rover. Whilst these responses did not provide all of the clarification or commitments requested, they did have the effect of drawing out further information than had been publicly stated before. As far as we are aware, this was the first substantial public statement on the issue from BMW. These responses can be found in Appendix B.
3.9 No statement or acknowledgement was received from Nike or Fila.
Appendix A Letter to Nike, sent by Nick Lowles, CEO on 17th September 2020:
Dear John Donahoe,
In the Xinjiang province in northwest China as many as three million Uyghur people have been held in so-called re-education camps.
There they have been brutalised, many have been tortured, and there are even credible claims of women being subject to forced sterilisations, abortions and sexual violence.
We have seen credible reports that your business has been implicated in the forced labour of Uyghur people through Chinese factories, some of which are alleged to produce elements for your trainers and clothing. Some of the factories accused of using forced labour, even house re-education facilities themselves.
On 10th March 2020, Nike issued a statement denying the allegations made in an Australian Strategic Policy Institute report that your company had connections with named factories implicated in the use of forced Uyghur labour.
However, the Nike statement does appear to confirm that Uyghur labour was present in your supply chain until at least 2019, long after reports of human rights abuses were widely reported:
“Related to the Taekwang Group, when reports of the situation in XUAR began to surface in 2019 Taekwang stopped hiring new employees from XUAR to its Qingdao facility and an independent third-party audit confirmed there are no longer any employees from XUAR at the facility. Our ongoing diligence has not found evidence of employment of Uyghurs, or other ethnic minorities from XUAR, elsewhere in our supply chain in China.”
But a BBC News article dated 23rd July 2020 includes a quote from Nike that appears to contradict this statement:
“Nike said after it confronted one of its suppliers, Taekwang Group, about the issue, the firm stopped recruiting employees from Xinjiang at one of its factories. The sportswear company said that Taekwang said those workers "had the ability to end or extend their contracts at any time".
We welcome your statement that ongoing diligence has not found evidence of employment of Uyghurs, or other ethnic minorities from Xinjiang, elsewhere in your China supply chain, however in the light of the questions raised by the statements above we do not feel that Nike has gone far enough to ensure it is not a direct or indirect beneficiary of the ongoing Uyghur cultural genocide.
Over 10,000 people have joined with us to co-sign this letter to you and demand that Nike:
· Confirm that no element of any of your products has been, or is, made using forced Uyghur labour and how you monitor your supply chains to ensure that is the case. (Your statement is confined to textiles / spun yarn from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.)
· Confirm the exact nature of the Uyghur labour employed by the Taekwang Group historically and the current status
· Confirm whether you are in a commercial relationship with Chinese companies that are involved in the use of forced labour anywhere in their supply chain (even if not within Nike’s product supply) and pledge to end any such relationship if so.
Yours,
Nick Lowles,
CEO, HOPE not hate
and over 10,000 co-signatories from the general public
Letter to Adidas, sent by Nick Lowles, CEO on 17th September 2020: Dear Kasper Rørsted,
In the Xinjiang province in northwest China as many as three million Uyghur people have been held in so-called re-education camps.
There they have been brutalised, many have been tortured, and there are even credible claims of women being subject to forced sterilisation, abortions and sexual violence.
We have seen credible reports that Adidas has been implicated in the forced labour of Uyghur people through Chinese factories, some of which are alleged to produce elements for your trainers and clothing. Some of the factories accused of using forced labour, even house re-education facilities themselves.
A New York Times article on July 23rd, reported the following about a statement made on June 27th:
“That campaign prompted Adidas and then Lacoste to “agree to cease all activity with suppliers and subcontractors” in Xinjiang after they were implicated in a report published in March by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.”
However, the same day (July 23rd) Sky News reported a contradictory statement from Adidas:
“Nike, Uniqlo, H&M and Adidas all told Sky News that they require their production partners to adhere to their companies' codes of conducts, which cover human and worker rights, and do not source goods from Xinjiang.”
Similarly, on that day BBC News also reported your statement that was in contradiction with the statement the previous month:
“Adidas said it had never sourced products from Xinjiang and the company cited in the ASPI report had falsely claimed to be a supplier.
"The Adidas workplace standards strictly prohibit all forms of forced and prison labour and are applicable to all companies across our supply chain," it added. "The use of forced labour by any of our partners will result in the termination of the partnership."
The day before on July 22nd, US Senator Josh Hawley (Rep.) specifically accused Adidas and others of profiting from Uighur slave labour in China when launching the Slave-Free Business Certification Act, saying:
"At least 80 global companies have been tied to forced Uighur labour in China, from sportswear companies like Nike, Adidas, and Puma to tech giants like Lenovo and Samsung...."
Unlike some of your competitors, Adidas appears to have put out no major statement on the issue, or confirmed whether there has ever been forced Uyghur labour in your supply chain or how you intend to audit whether forced Uyghur labour is being used.
In the light of the serious concerns raised, we do not feel that Adidas has gone far enough to ensure it is not a direct or indirect beneficiary of the ongoing Uyghur cultural genocide.
Over 10,000 people have joined with us to co-sign this letter to you and demand that Adidas:
Confirm if your products have been, or are, produced using forced Uyghur labour Commit to not use factories that use forced Uyghur labour and explain how you will monitor your supply chains to ensure that is the case Commit to review all China based operations to ensure that forced labour and human rights abuses are not occurring End any commercial relationship with Chinese companies that are involved in the use of forced labour anywhere in their supply chain (even if not within Adidas’ product supply).
Yours,
Nick Lowles,
CEO, HOPE not hate
and over 10,000 co-signatories from the general public
Letter to Puma, sent by Nick Lowles, CEO on 17th September 2020: Dear Bjørn Gulden,
In the Xinjiang province in northwest China as many as three million Uyghur people have been held in so-called re-education camps.
There they have been brutalised, many have been tortured, and there are even credible claims of women being subject to forced sterilisations, abortions and sexual violence.
We have seen credible reports that Puma has been implicated in the forced labour of Uyghur people through Chinese factories, some of which are alleged to produce elements for your trainers and clothing. Some of the factories accused of using forced labour, even house re-education facilities themselves.
The End Uyghur Forced Labour coalition of nearly 200 organisations from 36 countries, named Puma amongst the major brands that "credible investigations and reports" said were tainted by forced labour in their supply chains.
On July 22, US Senator Josh Hawley (Rep.) specifically accused Puma and others of profiting from Uighur slave labour in China when launching the Slave-Free Business Certification Act, saying:
"At least 80 global companies have been tied to forced Uighur labour in China, from sportswear companies like Nike, Adidas, and Puma to tech giants like Lenovo and Samsung.."
Unlike some of the other companies implicated in these flagrant human rights abuse, Puma appears to have chosen to make no public statements on the issue. PUMA’s response to the original Australian Strategic Policy Institute report in March confirmed that forced Uyghur labour had contributed into your supply chain:
“PUMA has no direct relationship with Huafu Top Dyed Melange Yarn Co. Ltd. However, as they are one of the world’s largest cotton yarn suppliers, some of our fabric suppliers buy yarns from them.”
Your response also claims that you “continue to observe the case and conduct further investigations” though no evidence has since been provided and though you state you have contacted “cotton-based garment manufacturers and mapped the origin of the yarns they are using” there has been no public confirmation that no Uyghur forced labour was involved.
You also only claim to be merely ‘considering’ to arrange an assessment of the Huafau production facilities.
In August, Vogue Business also reported that ‘Puma said that only one of the two manufacturers associated with the company by the report works, indirectly, for Puma and there is no evidence of any form of forced labour in its factory.’
It’s clear that that Puma has not gone far enough to ensure it is not a direct or indirect beneficiary of the ongoing Uyghur cultural genocide.
Over 10,000 people have joined with us to co-sign this letter to you and demand that Puma:
Confirm if any of your products have ever been, or are, produced using forced Uyghur labour Commit to review all China based operations to ensure that forced labour and human rights abuses are not occurring Commit to not use factories that use forced Uyghur labour and explain how you will monitor your supply chains to ensure that is the case End any commercial relationship with Chinese companies that are involved in the use of forced labour anywhere in their supply chain (even if not within Puma’s product supply).
Yours,
Nick Lowles,
CEO, HOPE not hate
and over 10,000 co-signatories from the general public
Letter to FILA, sent by Nick Lowles, CEO on 17th September 2020: Dear Yoon Keun-chang,
In the Xinjiang province in northwest China as many as three million Uyghur people have been held in so-called re-education camps.
There they have been brutalised, many have been tortured, and there are even credible claims of women being subject to forced sterilisations, abortions and sexual violence.
We have seen credible reports that Fila has been implicated in the forced labour of Uyghur people through Chinese factories, some of which are alleged to produce elements for your trainers and clothing. Some of the factories accused of using forced labour, even house re-education facilities themselves.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute named Fila amongst the major brands that were tainted by forced Uyghur labour in their supply chains.
Unlike some of the other companies implicated in these flagrant human rights abuse, Fila appears to have chosen not to make public statements on the issue and in August, Vogue Business noted that Fila did not reply to a request for comment on the issue.
Your company has chosen not to deny that forced Uyghur labour had contributed into your supply chain or commit to stopping the use of Uyghur forced labour. It is therefore reasonable to assume at this moment in time that these reports are accurate.
It’s clear therefore that Fila is not concerned with ensuring it is not a direct or indirect beneficiary of the ongoing Uyghur cultural genocide.
Over 10,000 people have joined with us to co-sign this letter to you and demand that Fila: Confirm if any of your products have been, or are, produced using forced Uyghur labour Commit to review all China based operations to ensure that forced labour and human rights abuses are not occurring Commit to not use factories that use forced Uyghur labour and confirm how you will monitor your supply chains to ensure that is the case End any commercial relationship with Chinese companies that are involved in the use of forced labour anywhere in their supply chain (even if not within the Fila product supply).
Yours,
Nick Lowles,
CEO, HOPE not hate
and over 10,000 co-signatories from the general public
Letter to Apple, sent by Nick Lowles, CEO on 17th September 2020: Dear Tim Cook,
In the Xinjiang province in northwest China as many as three million Uyghur people have been held in so-called re-education camps.
There they have been brutalised, many have been tortured, and there are even credible claims of women being subject to forced sterilisations, abortions and sexual violence.
We have seen credible reports that Apple has been implicated in the forced labour of Uyghur people through Chinese factories, some of which are alleged to produce elements for your trainers and clothing. Some of the factories accused of using forced labour, even house re-education facilities themselves.
On 1st March 2020, the Financial Times reported the following in response to the allegations from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute report that Apple had connections with named factories implicated in the use of forced Uyghur labour:
“Apple is dedicated to ensuring that everyone in our supply chain is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said spokesman Josh Rosenstock. “We have not seen this report but we work closely with all our suppliers to ensure our high standards are upheld.”
A BBC News article dated 23rd July 2020 includes Apple positions that appear to go further:
“Apple also said it had investigated the claims. "We have found no evidence of any forced labour on Apple production lines and we plan to continue monitoring," the firm said.
Earlier in February, an Apple component supplier, Nanchang O-Film Tech, was singled out for ties to forced labour by the Associated Press and ASPI and was also sanctioned by the U.S. Commerce Department for its ties to forced labour, but the same BBC article reports:
Apple said it had not found any issues, despite conducting several surprise audits of its long-time supplier O-Film - one of the firms cited by the US Commerce Department.”
However, an August Tech Transparency Project (TTP) investigation found that Apple has sourced staff uniforms worn by retail employees from a company tied to the use of forced labour in Xinjiang. According to TTP, shipping records show that the Esquel Group exports thousands of T- shirts to Apple in the United States and until recently, Esquel’s website boasted of Apple being a “major customer” according to ASPI.
The previous month, on July 20, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed sanctions on Esquel’s Xinjiang subsidiary, Changji Esquel Textile Co. Ltd and others finding that they had been “engaging in activities contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States through the practice of forced labor involving members of Muslim minority groups”. On July 31, the Treasury Department also announced sanctions on Esquel’s longtime partner in the region, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC).
The Guardian newspaper noted that following your statement that “Esquel is not a direct supplier to Apple but our suppliers do use cotton from their facilities in Guangzhou and Vietnam. We have confirmed no Apple supplier sources cotton from Xinjiang and there are no plans for future sourcing of cotton from the region”, Apple’s spokesman declined to say where those factories source their raw cotton.
We welcome Apple’s engagement on this issue but in the light of the questions raised by the statements above we do not feel that Apple has gone far enough to ensure it is not a direct or indirect beneficiary of the ongoing Uyghur cultural genocide.
Over 10,000 people have joined with us to co-sign this letter to you and demand that Apple:
· Confirm that no element of any products produced for Apple have been, or are, made using forced Uyghur labour and how you monitor your supply chains to ensure that is the case
· Provide evidence that Nanchang O-Film Tech and Esquel are not implicated in any way in the use of Uyghur forced labour.
· Confirm whether you are in a commercial relationship with any Chinese company that is involved in the use of forced labour anywhere in their supply chain (even if not within Apple’s product supply) and pledge to end any such relationship if so.
Yours,
Nick Lowles,
CEO, HOPE not hate
and over 10,000 co-signatories from the general public
Letter to BMW, sent by Nick Lowles, CEO on 17th September 2020: Dear Oliver Zipse,
In the Xinjiang province in northwest China as many as three million Uyghur people have been held in so-called re-education camps.
There they have been brutalised, many have been tortured, and there are even credible claims of women being subject to forced sterilisations, abortions and sexual violence.
We have seen credible reports that BMW has been implicated in the forced labour of Uyghur people through Chinese factories, some of which are alleged to produce elements that are used in your product supply chain. Some of the factories accused of using forced labour, even house re- education facilities themselves.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute named BMW amongst the major brands that were tainted by forced Uyghur labour in their supply chains.
Unlike some of the other companies implicated in these flagrant human rights abuse, BMW appears to have chosen to make no public statements on the issue, beyond the inadequate response to the original Australian Strategic Policy Institute report refusing to comment.
BMW did not deny that forced Uyghur labour had contributed into your supply chain or commit to stopping the use of Uyghur forced labour. It is therefore reasonable to assume that these reports are accurate.
Considering the specific history of the BMW company, it is deeply disturbing that your company has not gone above and beyond to ensure that it is not a direct or indirect beneficiary of the ongoing Uyghur cultural genocide.
Over 10,000 people have joined with us to co-sign this letter to you and demand that BMW: Confirm if any of your products have been, or are, produced using forced Uyghur labour Commit to review all China based operations to ensure that forced labour and human rights abuses are not occurring Commit to not use factories that use forced Uyghur labour and confirm how you will monitor your supply chains to ensure that is the case End any commercial relationship with Chinese companies that are involved in the use of forced labour anywhere in their supply chain (even if not within BMW’s product supply).
Yours,
Nick Lowles,
CEO, HOPE not hate
and over 10,000 co-signatories from the general public
Letter to Jaguar Land Rover, sent by Nick Lowles, CEO on 17th September 2020:
Dear Ralf Speth,
In the Xinjiang province in northwest China as many as three million Uyghur people have been held in so-called re-education camps.
There they have been brutalised, many have been tortured, and there are even credible claims of women being subject to forced sterilisations, abortions and sexual violence.
We have seen credible reports that your business is implicated in the forced labour of Uyghur people in the Chinese factories that are used within your product supply chain. Some of these factories are even alleged to house re-education facilities themselves.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute named Jaguar Land Rover amongst the major brands that were tainted by forced Uyghur labour in their supply chains.
Unlike some of the other companies implicated in these flagrant human rights abuse, Jaguar Land Rover appears to have chosen not to make public statements on the issue.
Your company has chosen not to deny that forced Uyghur labour had contributed into your supply chain or commit to stopping the use of Uyghur forced labour. It is therefore reasonable to assume that these reports are accurate.
It’s appears therefore that Jaguar Land Rover is not concerned with ensuring it is not a direct or indirect beneficiary of the ongoing Uyghur cultural genocide.
Over 10,000 people have joined with us to co-sign this letter to you and demand that Jaguar Land Rover: Confirm if any of your products have been produced using forced Uyghur labour Commit to review all China based operations to ensure that forced labour and human rights abuses are not occurring Commit to not use factories that use forced Uyghur labour and confirm how you will monitor your supply chains to ensure that is the case End any commercial relationship with Chinese companies that are involved in the use of forced labour anywhere in their supply chain (even if not within the Jaguar Land Rover product supply).
Yours,
Nick Lowles,
CEO, HOPE not hate
and over 10,000 co-signatories from the general public Appendix B
Response from Puma, 17th September 2020:
Compliance with human rights, labor rights and environmental standards is a top priority at PUMA and has been specified in our Codes of Conduct for over 20 years. To implement our code of conduct, we maintain a team of 20 experts who regularly visit our suppliers around the world and train those suppliers via round tables in the purchasing regions on current sustainability issues.
Every manufacturer of PUMA has to go through a compliance audit for social and environmental standards before starting the business relationship. Only those manufacturers who pass this audit are included in our supplier base. After starting the business relationship, our manufacturers are checked annually for compliance with our standards; so they are re-audited every year. If critical deviations from international social and environmental standards are found as part of these regular reviews, the manufacturer is asked to remedy them immediately. If a manufacturer repeatedly fails to comply with these requests, the business relationship may be terminated.
Our audit program for our manufacturers has existed since 1999 and was first accredited by the Fair Labor Association in 2007. The last accreditation was completed last year (2019). This means that PUMA has kept demonstrating to have strong policies and practices in place to identify and remediate unfair labor practices in its global supply chain.
In order to check compliance with human rights at the second level of our supply chain, a few years ago we decided to include our most important manufacturers of materials and components in our audit program. In addition to 377 audits at our direct contractual partners or Tier 1 suppliers, we have also conduct 39 inspections at the so-called Tier 2 suppliers last year.
Another building block of our human rights policy is steadily increasing the proportion of materials from certified sources, such as cotton, polyester or leather. For example, last year we obtained 98% of our polyester, 98% of our leather and 82% of our cotton from certified, more sustainable sources like the Better Cotton Initiative or Bluesign. For the year 2020, we have asked all our suppliers to exclusively use Better Cotton Initiative cotton for PUMA production.
PUMA has been focusing on transparency of our work to respect Human Rights and the environment. We are, for example, listed in the top ten companies of the Fashion Revolution Transparency Index. We have also recently published our 2019 Annual Report which includes a detailed sustainability section (https://annual-report-2019.puma.com/en/index.html).
We took the report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) as an opportunity to review our supply chain in China with regard to potential threats of forced labor. Our research has shown that one of the two manufacturers associated with PUMA by ASPI does not work for PUMA. The other manufacturer (Huafu) works indirectly for PUMA. Huafu is one of the largest yarn manufacturers in Asia and produces yarns that are used, among others, by PUMA manufacturers in Bangladesh. According to our research, yarns for PUMA products are exclusively manufactured in two Huafu factories. These are located in the province of Zhejiang in eastern China and in Vietnam.
For the factory in Zhejiang (Huafu Melange Yarn Co. Ltd), we have by now received two external assessment reports from the "Social and Labor Convergence Program" or SLCP. Both reports are written by renowned test houses, contain a detailed assessment of the labor rights situation in the factory and include no evidence of any form of forced labor.
In addition, we commissioned an external assessment on the origin of the cotton used by Huafu Melange Yarn Co. Ltd, which shows no evidence of Xinjiang cotton being used for yarns sold to PUMA suppliers.
The Huafu factory in Vietnam works with the renowned "Better Work Program" of the International Labor Organization (ILO), so that we can also assume that human rights and labor rights are respected. Response from BMW, 17th September 2020:
The accusation you mentioned about human rights violations in China is based on a study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. As we said when the report was published, the ASPI did not approach us before publication and so we were unable to investigate these allegations and put the records straight from the beginning.
Immediately after the publication of the report we contacted our suppliers to establish to what extent the Chinese company Highbroad Advanced Material Co. Ltd. is, as the study claims, a BMW Group supplier. The results confirm that the BMW Group is not a customer of Highbroad Advanced Material Co. Ltd. Therefore the claims made in the ASPI report relating to BMW are not true.
Guaranteeing respect for human rights has been a declared aim of the BMW Group’s mission statement for almost 15 years. The “Joint Declaration on Human Rights and Working Conditions” we published in 2005, which was signed by representatives of the Board of Management, the Works Council and the IG Metall trade union, draws specific attention to the social responsibility that arises from increasingly globalised production and sales networks.
This commitment extends beyond the company itself and its direct partners. The BMW Group firmly believes its aims can only be achieved by building ongoing relationships with suppliers and through consistent management of the supplier network.
The BMW Group has formulated and published a Code on Human Rights and Working Conditions, which supplements the Joint Declaration referred to above and applies to all employees, suppliers and authorised sales partners.
The Code explicitly advises employees of the BMW Group’s commitment to respecting human rights and their importance to the company and sets out responsibilities and processes for implementation based on the UN Guiding Principles.
Environmental and social standards are also defined in the “BMW Group Sustainability Standard for the Supplier Network”, which has been an integral part of offer-solicitation documents for suppliers of components for BMW i models since 2008 and for all other products since 2014, and must therefore be taken into consideration at the time of bidding. In concrete terms, this means all bids submitted by suppliers must take account of the BMW Group’s sustainability requirements.
All BMW Group supplier contracts for production and non-production materials also contain specific clauses in the purchasing terms and conditions referring to the principles of the UN Global Compact and International Labour Organisation (ILO).
When our suppliers sign a contract, they also undertake to require their subcontractors to observe these agreements and to track compliance.
We tightened our sustainability requirements for suppliers further in 2019. In addition to an environmental management system certified to ISO 14001 or EMAS, we now also require a certified occupational health and safety management system in accordance with OHSAS 18001 or the new ISO 45001 standard. Response from Adidas, 18th September 2020:
Thank you for your letter of September 17, 2020 outlining the severity of the situation facing Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and their employment as involuntary or forced labor in supply chains across China.
As a company, adidas is committed to upholding international labor rights standards and human rights norms globally. This means we strictly prohibit the use of all forms of forced labor, including prison labor, in our supply chain. Moreover, we do not permit our suppliers to hire dispatch workers, or other forms of labor, through government-managed schemes. This has been our approach for more than a decade and is an integral part of our labor monitoring practice in China.
In your letter you refer to “credible reports” of a linkage between adidas and manufacturers employing forced labor. We assume you are referring to research conducted by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which highlights the exploitation and adverse treatment of Uyghur workers in China. adidas treated the allegations detailed in ASPI’s March 2020 report very seriously and we immediately launched an investigation.
With respect to ASPI’s findings, our in-country investigations confirmed that we held no direct contractual relationship with any of the businesses named in their report. None were producing adidas goods.
We have also looked closely at the upstream supply chain. In Spring 2019 we explicitly required our materials suppliers in China not to buy yarn from Xinjiang and since then have supported the Better Cotton Initiative in its decision to suspend the supply of Better Cotton from that region. BCI is a key source of cotton for adidas globally.
The above actions form part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that there are no supply chain linkages to forced labor in XUAR, or to the export of labor from this region. We continue to work diligently towards that goal.
We trust the above addresses your concerns.
Response from Apple, 23rd September 2020:
Thank you for reaching out to us. Workplace rights are human rights and we take this very seriously. Apple has zero tolerance for forced labor of any kind and we are dedicated to ensuring everyone in our supply chain is treated with dignity and respect.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct is the strongest in the industry and we assess our suppliers, including with surprise audits, evaluating over 500 criteria to ensure compliance with our high standards, and to identify any improvement areas. Looking for the presence of forced labor is part of every supplier assessment we conduct and any violations of our policies carry immediate consequences, including business termination. These protections apply across the supply chain, regardless of a person’s job or location.
Last year, we reviewed our manufacturing supply chain in China, including final assembly and test partners. We also conduct rigorous audits, including surprise audits with third-party investigators, and have found no evidence of any forced labor in Apple’s supply chain.
We are deeply concerned about reports suggesting use of forced labor at O-Film. When we first learned of the allegations in February, we immediately took additional actions and began a detailed investigation, including dispatching independent, third-party investigators to their facilities.
While we have found no evidence of any forced labor in facilities producing for Apple, we requested that O-Film immediately conduct thorough, independent third-party investigations at all of their facilities for all of their customers to verify that no forced labor exists anywhere in their operations, and publicly share the results of those investigations.
While ensuring there is no forced labor in Apple’s supply chain is of critical importance, we believe forced labor should be eradicated everywhere, and that everyone, regardless of ethnic background, should have access to employment and education. We do not allow our suppliers to discriminate against any ethnic group, including Uighurs.
Protecting workers rights begins with awareness, which is why we require our suppliers to train their employees on their workplace rights. Since 2008, more than 19 million have been trained on their rights and we provide a number of methods for supplier employees to report any concerns directly to Apple, including hotlines for anonymous phone calls and the ability to directly contact Apple’s Supplier Responsibility team.
Beyond these protections, we interview tens of thousands of supplier employees every year in their local language and without their managers present, to ensure that their workplace experience aligns with our observations during assessments. We prohibit retaliation of any kind, and follow up with interviewees to confirm they have not experienced retaliation as a result of their participation or reporting concerns.
We are proud to be leaders in upholding the highest standards, but we also know that solving these issues across our industry and beyond requires partnership and collective action. Apple works with the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), a non-profit coalition of companies focused on ethical supply chain conditions to strengthen the RBA’s guidance and assessment tools to help the entire industry ensure that strict labor and human rights requirements are met. Response from Jaguar Land Rover, 22nd September 2020:
Dear Mr Lowles
Thank you for contacting us regarding the reference to Jaguar Land Rover in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute report ‘Uyghurs for Sale’.
ASPI did not contact us for comment before publication, despite including us in the list of over eighty brands that the report says ‘appear to have elements of forced Uyghur labour in their supply chains’.
We investigated the claim in the report and established that the company which it references does not directly support Jaguar Land Rover. In addition, through enquiries of our suppliers we found no evidence that the company is in our indirect supply chain.
At Jaguar Land Rover we have an active ongoing programme of human rights protection and anti-slavery measures, both for our own operations and our supply chains. This is detailed on our company website and includes an annual assessment of risk and follow-up. To date, we are not aware of any substantiated reports of forced labour within our supply chains and we continue with our drive for further transparency.
All suppliers are expected to meet environmental and social requirements as part of their contract with us, supported by our Code of Conduct and Corporate Policy on Human Rights. The Code, our Policies and contractual terms are clear in the need to protect human rights and, when we are alerted to a potential supply chain issue, we work with our suppliers to get them to meet our standards. In addition, as part of the continuous improvement in our supplier relationship standards, we review these annually and remind our suppliers of what is required of them.
At Jaguar Land Rover we continuously strive to do business in the right way; fairly, with honesty and transparency. The integrity of our actions and those of the people we do business with is vital for our continued success.
Yours sincerely
David Owen Executive Director, Global Purchasing
Guy Higgins Director of Compliance & Ethics
Appendix C
Article from Roxana Khan-Williams in Fashion Roundtable on 18th September 2020:
This has been a year where we have all been forced to stop and ask: how can we do things differently? How can we do things better?
Coronavirus has radically changed how we think about work and community. Black Lives Matter made us confront the real impacts of racism. And recent forest fires have served as warnings for the planet's wildlife, highlighting that time is running out to stop the clock on climate change.
Yet while it seems the whole world is in flux, a familiar story can still be told of the fashion industry's complicity in both human and environmental harm. From Boohoo's Leicester clothing sweatshop scandal, big brands leaving garment makers in the global south unpaid, and ever-increasing evidence of the environmental impacts that the fashion industry has on our planet.
But is the industry really responding? Like the rest of the corporate world, the fashion industry pledged itself to racial equality and fairness in the wake of Black Lives Matter – yet just months earlier a report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute revealed that over 83 well- known brands from the fashion, automobile and technology sector were implicated in the use of Uyghur forced labour in Chinese factories.
Between one and three million Uyghur people are believed to being interned in re-education camps – forced to renounce their Muslim faith, pledge allegiance to the Chinese state and work as slave labourers. Women are forcibly sterilised and subject to forced abortions, children are separated from their parents and put into orphanages, as well as reports of state-sanctioned sexual violence. Uyghur cultural sites are demolished, and the entire population has been placed under mass surveillance. Make no mistake – this is a cultural genocide under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
This summer a coalition of 190 human rights groups, trade unions and civil organisations said the entire fashion world was tainted by this industrial-scale human rights abuse. They claimed that 84% of cotton production from China comes from the Uyghur Region – that's 20% of the world's cotton. This week, America banned certain garment products made in the Uyghur homeland (Xinjiang) from being imported into the country.
With yesterday marking the start of London Fashion Week, we at HOPE not hate are trying to bring the issue to wider attention and force the industry to take action. More than 10,000 people co- signed our open letter to the CEOs of Nike, Adidas, Puma and Fila as well as non-fashion brands Apple, BMW and Jaguar Land-Rover, demanding that they prove that there is no Uyghur forced labour anywhere in their Chinese supply chain.
It's time for fashion to take a stand against what's happening, not just post activist chic messages on social media. We can't tolerate human rights and labour exploitation for the sake of cheaper clothes.
We need systemic change in the way the fashion industry models itself and a cognitive shift in how we view our clothes. If we want clothes that cheap, then we must question why? To put it simply: new t-shirts should not be cheaper than your flat white. Let us de-stigmatise wearing the same dress twice, take pride in finding a bargain in a charity shop and gracefully accept hand me downs.
The fashion world can't sit by whilst the industry is implicated in the biggest human rights abuse so far this century. The hashtag for this year's London Fashion Week is #LFWReset – and it's time to reset our relationship with forced labour and stand in solidarity with the Uyghur people, whose plight is not on show but being hidden from the world.
February 2021