China is accused of forcing Xinjiang Uyghurs to produce cotton in an inhumane manner, the Italian national brand Benetton, OVS are posted on the official website announcement, based on Xinjiang cotton has violated human rights, forced labor suspicion, its products will no longer use Xinjiang cotton.
Central News Agency, citing the Italian bishops’ conference official newspaper Futurama (Avvenire) reported that OVS and other well-known Italian brands to stop using Xinjiang cotton, a symbol of Italy’s first step in response to support the human rights of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, as Pope Francis has always stood with the disadvantaged groups.
OVS is Italy’s largest ready-to-wear retailer, accounting for 5% of the Italian national ready-to-wear retail market, with sales outlets in 35 countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, with up to more than 1,000 retail stores worldwide.
OVS announced on its official website that the cotton produced by Xinjiang Uyghurs is suspected of forced labor, and OVS has decided to respond to the initiative launched by the Italian Clean Clothes Campaign by suspending all business dealings with Xinjiang cotton, thereby calling on the Chinese government and related Chinese enterprises to immediately stop persecuting the human rights of Xinjiang Uyghurs and stop the forced labor of Xinjiang Uyghurs. Uyghur forced labor.
Another announcement to stop using Xinjiang cotton is made by the famous Italian brand Benetton, which has more than 5,000 stores around the world. Benetton has repeatedly expressed its solidarity with international human rights events, and just announced on the 12th that it would stop placing orders with Myanmar garment manufacturers to protest against the bloody crackdown on protesters by the Myanmar military.
The announcement on Benetton’s website pointed out that cotton produced in Xinjiang and Uzbekistan, China, has been accused of abusive child labor and forced labor, so Benetton will not use cotton from these regions for all of its products, and Benetton’s cotton production chain, from planting to processing, has firmly rejected any exploitation of underage labor or forced labor.
Futurama pointed out that, according to the United States, Canada, Belgium, human rights organizations, the global market share of up to one-fifth of the Xinjiang cotton, in fact, is the Xinjiang Uyghurs were locked in “re-Education camps” forced labor production products, the Chinese government persecuted the Muslim minority Uyghurs, requiring them to work overtime in harsh conditions to produce low-priced cotton.
In his book “Let Us Dream,” published late last year, Pope Francis also expressed his solidarity with the Uighurs in Xinjiang, saying he often thinks of the oppressed: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi followers.
Deborah Lucchetti, a researcher for the Clean Clothes Campaign, was quoted by Future News as saying that stopping the use of sweat cotton in Xinjiang is of great significance to the defense of Uighurs’ human rights, and that even the European Union took the first step in 30 years on the 22nd to impose sanctions on some Chinese officials and companies for persecuting Uighurs.
Luke Tee said that multinational apparel companies have a strong influence, I hope that through the Italian national brands, let more international apparel companies realize that 84% of China’s cotton is the product of forced labor of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, international brands should uphold the “United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights”, as soon as possible to stop using Xinjiang cotton to call on the Chinese government to respect the human rights of ethnic minorities.
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