Uyghur Forced Labor

The Chinese government’s abuses of Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples, deemed crimes against humanity, have embroiled leading corporations in a severe human rights crisis. Numerous industries—including apparel, mining, green energy, information and communications technology, and automotive—are at high risk of exposure to state-imposed forced labor in the Uyghur Region or at facilities elsewhere in China receiving forced labor transfers. This forced labor is bolstered by a pervasive, intrusive technology-enabled system of surveillance and intersects with additional human rights abuses, including gender-based violence and harassment, forced family separation, forced sterilization, and mandatory political ideological training. 

Because of the extreme levels of surveillance and repression in the Uyghur Region, it is not possible for a worker to speak candidly to an independent investigator without fear of retaliation or reprisal. As such, the only way that brands and retailers can ensure that they are not complicit in Uyghur forced labor is by exiting the region at all levels of the supply chain, from raw materials to finished goods, and ending commercial relationships with companies that are implicated in this forced labor crisis—as has been required since 2022 by the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) for importers into the United States. 

Only by fully tracing their supply chains to the level of raw material production and processing can brands and retailers have sufficient visibility into the production of their goods to ensure they are in compliance with the UFLPA.  

However, corporate responsibility cannot stop at US compliance, or brands risk creating a dual market: one forced-labor-free for US sales and another reliant on it elsewhere. By applying a single global standard across their entire supply chain, consistent with UFLPA requirements, brands can prevent other markets from becoming outlets for goods made with Uyghur forced labor. 

The WRC is a steering committee member of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. The Coalition’s Call to Action was essentially codified into US law with the passage of the UFLPA.