Helena Kennedy Centre Launches Series On Uyghur Crisis
Over the last two years, The Helena Kennedy Centre within Sheffield Hallam University has been at the forefront of exposing corporate and financial institution complicity in the crisis in the Uyghur Region and identifying the risk that crisis poses to our international supply chains.
Now they have launched a series of issue briefs and supply chain updates. The series is intended to keep everyone up to date on what is happening in the Uyghur Region and to help us all understand a bit better how supply chains are changing in response to the crisis.
The first brief in the series –– Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region: The Evidence, discusses clearly, but with nuance, the extent and severity of forced labour of Uyghurs and other minoritized citizens in the XUAR and corporate participation in state-sponsored labour transfers. They present evidence that the ubiquitous coercion of the workers in the Uyghur Region constitutes forced labour under ILO standards and how forced labour affects a wide range of industries in the region and how standard due diligence is insufficient in this repressive environment.
Our Work In This Area
As a thought-leader in this space, Fashion Roundtable's report, 'Cleaning Up Fashion' was a first of it's kind, seeking out opinion on how UK policy can positively impact the fashion industry abroad. In our final evidence session, we heard from several experts on the forced labour of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and discussed recommendations as to what the international community, the UK government and fashion brands can do to expedite change in the global fashion and textiles industries.
Our report aimed to outline the complex current issues, both environmental and ethical, facing the global supply chain on a national and international level, looking both at UK based micro brands (MSEs) and larger internationally renowned brands. The report explored long term sustainable solutions, with key recommendations for both policy makers and business leaders. These recommendations, if actioned, would not only mitigate against the potential suffering of garment workers at the bottom of the supply chain everywhere from Leicester to Xingang; they would also address the escalating impacts of the fashion industry on the environment’s finite resources, as a consequence of consumer choices based on an unsustainable and untransparent fashion business model.