Germany: complaint filed against VW, BMW, & Mercedes Benz for breaching human rights due diligence obligations in Xinjiang

Publication

22 June 2023 à 11h10

Reading time

3 minutes

Publication: 22 June 2023 à 11h10

Reading time: 3 minutes

On 21 June the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) confirmed that it had filed a complaint against Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes Benz, accusing them of failing to exercise their due diligence obligations vis-à-vis their Chinese subcontractors. The NGO is drawing material for the complaint from reports indicating human rights violations against the Uyghur people living in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR - a province within the People's Republic of China (PRC)). This is the first time in Germany that a complaint has invoked the German ‘Supply Chain Due Diligence Act’ (LkSG), which came into force on 01 January 2023.

An article by Thomas Schnee

Publication

22 June 2023 à 11h10

Reading time

3 minutes

Publication: 22 June 2023 à 11h10

Reading time: 3 minutes

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Berlin-based NGO, the ECCHR, has filed a landmark complaint with German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) against Germany’s three main automakers (VW, BMW, Mercedes Benz). The NGO accuses the automakers of not taking adequate measures to ‘detect, prevent and eliminate human rights violations found in their supply chains in China’s Xinjiang province,’ in accordance with the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtgesetz – LkSG). “We are calling for a halt

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Article authors

Featured image of the article Thomas Schnee

Thomas Schnee Correspondent in Germany

As a Berlin correspondent for the French and Swiss press since the late 1990s, I cover a wide range of economic, political and social issues, with a particular focus on the German business and labour market. My areas of interest include co-determination, digitalisation, demographics and ESG/DEI policies.