A man sits in front of a Zara ready-to-wear store in the center of Nantes, western France, March 25, 2021.
Several French NGOs and a victimized Uighur survivor filed a complaint in a Paris court on March 9 against four multinational clothing giants for profiting from the forced labor of Uighurs in Xinjiang. William Bourdon, a prominent human rights lawyer representing the prosecution, said, “This will be the beginning of a series of complaints in European countries over the next few months.
The Central News Agency reported that the companies accused of “concealing forced labor and crimes against humanity” are: Inditex Group, the parent company of Spanish apparel brand ZARA; UNIQLO, a Japanese affordable apparel brand; SKECHERS, an American athletic shoe brand; and SMCP, the parent company of brands such as Sandro and Maje. SMCP.
The charges were brought by the anti-corruption NGO Sherpa, the Collectif Ethique sur l’étiquette, the European Uyghur Academy (IUE), and the European Union. The prosecution is suing Sherpa, the Collectif Ethique sur l’étiquette, the Institute for Uyghur Studies in Europe (IODE) and a Uyghur woman who was imprisoned in Xinjiang.
The prosecution has asked the French judiciary to investigate these companies on the basis of an investigation into Uighur forced labor published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in March 2020, and has accused them of “persistently outsourcing a portion of their production to the factories in question, or profiting from Xinjiang cotton products, as complicit in serious crimes.”
The NGOs believe that the four multinational companies are profiting from goods made with Uyghur forced labor; they also believe that these companies have not made sufficient efforts to ensure that their outsourcing is not involved in the persecution of the Uyghurs.
Therefore, the prosecution has resorted to judicial review to determine whether these acts are “concealment of the crime of aggravated slavery,” “concealment of organized human trafficking,” or even “concealment of genocide and crimes against humanity. “.
William Bourdon, a leading human rights lawyer representing the prosecution, has filed a lawsuit in the Paris court, saying, “This will be the beginning of a series of complaints in European countries over the next few months.
In the complaint, Inditex Group is accused of having close ties with key textile manufacturers in Xinjiang, a claim Inditex denies, while UNIQLO is accused of using fabrics from Xinjiang and the Anhui region where thousands of Uighurs may be forced to work.
As for SMCP, whose main shareholder is China’s Shandong Ruyi Holdings, according to the ASPI report, SMCP has long opened several factories in Xinjiang since 2010. SKECHERS’ French company is accused of employing forced laborers from Xinjiang in one of its Shandong factories.
The prosecution announced that it will hold a press conference in Paris on the 12th and invited Raphaël Glucksmann, a European parliamentarian who was recently sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party for Uyghur issues, and Dilnur Reyhan, a sociologist and founder of the European Uyghur Academy, to attend.
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