Legal mechanisms that are trying to remove corporate impunity in terms of human rights? At the beginning of April, three NGOs, the anti-corruption group Sherpa, the NGO Ethique (the French branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign), the Uyghur Institute of Europe as well as a female Uyghur victim filed a complaint with a Paris court against four companies (clothing companies Uniqlo, Inditex, and SMCP, and footwear manufacturer Skechers) for concealment of forced labor. The Paris prosecutor's office will decide in the coming weeks whether or not to open a criminal investigation based on the information provided by the collective alliance, which intends to continue to securing evidence for its case. Further complaints could follow in Germany and the Netherlands.
After the Vinci case which saw Sherpa file a complaint for ‘forced labor’ at the World Cup 2022 construction sites (c.f. article No. 8978), the NGO, famous for being the at the very start of ‘innovative litigation’ in the field of corporate responsibility, is now attacking the clothing sector. On 12 April during at Paris press conference, lawyers William Bourdon and Basile Oudet explained that they were basing their complaint on the criminal offences of concealing aggravated slavery, and organ
…Do you have information to share with us?