The Problems of China’s Cotton Industry
The Government of the People’s Republic of China has detained over one million Uyghur and Turkic minorities located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and has forced many of them to work in cotton fields, spinning mills, and textile factories. The End Uyghur Forced Labour Coalition has issued a Call to Action for the apparel industry to stop sourcing from the region supported by over 200 human rights organizations from around the world.
The Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region is a coalition of civil society organizations and trade unions united to end state-sponsored forced labour and other egregious human rights abuses against people from the Uyghur Region in China, known to local people as East Turkistan. The coalition is calling on leading brands and retailers to ensure that they are not supporting or benefiting from the pervasive and extensive forced labour of the Uyghur population and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples, perpetrated by the Chinese government.
Human rights activists agree that without critical support from Uyghur-run human rights organizations, very little information from within East Turkistan will emerge.