Half a million Uyghur forced laborers break their backs
daily on the cotton fields of East Turkestan (Uyghur
autonomous region of Xinjiang, People’s Republic, China). Far away
from their homes and families, they are exploited as unpaid and
cheap labor on state-run plantations and manufactures, picking and
processing cotton for fashion brands like HUGO BOSS.
SumOfUs confronted HUGO BOSS about its involvement in
these human rights violations in East Turkestan -- but the
company refuses to take definitive measures to cut Uyghur forced
labor from its supply chain.
The fashion giant depends on its image as an expensive,
luxury brand -- a scandal on forced labor would challenge
this. Together we can publicly force HUGO BOSS to address
the issues and to clean up its supply chain.
HUGO BOSS are doing everything to keep the lid on this dirty
secret, let’s make sure everyone knows the company is
enabling repression.
Tell
HUGO BOSS to stop profiting from human rights abuses and cut forced
labor out of its supply chain!
East Turkestan is one of the largest cotton production
and export regions and produces 20% of the world’s cotton.
According to the Australian Policy Institute, BOSS and other global
fashion brands, work with suppliers that employ Uyghur
forced laborers.
Our friends at the End Forced Uyghur Labour Coalition
demand that HUGO BOSS signs the call to action and
have identified immediate steps that HUGO BOSS must take to
end labor exploitation in East Turkestan:
- Close collaboration with relevant
organizations, to put an end to the human rights abuses
in East Turkestan within a concrete timeframe
- Total transparency along the supply chain,
inclusive of all sub-suppliers that are based in and outside of
East Turkestan
- Taking appropriate action, such as the
termination of trade relations to keep HUGO BOSS’ supply chain
free of forced labor
Can you help them to meet their demands? SumOfUs members have
successfully stood with Uyghurs in the past: last year,
together, we forced Apple to take steps to uphold human rights and
to protect the freedom of expression of its users in China.
Today, you can get HUGO BOSS to protect the rights of Uyghurs.
Tell
HUGO BOSS to exit the region of East Turkestan and to stop allowing
Uyghur forced labor in its supply chain.
