With China’s Xinjiang province providing 20% of the world's cotton supplies, legal action has been launched for a second time in France against three major retailing businesses: Uniqlo, Inditex and Skechers. In Brussels, the European Commission may be moving towards US-style legislation that targets products produced using forced labour and reverses the burden of proof.
In mid-May 2023, the European Uyghur Institute of Paris along with several NGOs filed a new complaint with the Paris Tribunal Court accusing Uniqlo, Inditex and Skechers of participating in the repression of the minority Uyghur population of the Xinjiang region, and in the ‘management and construction of camps’ where hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs are illegally detained and forced to pick cotton. The lawsuit is using as evidence video footage showing Skechers shoes being made by Uyghur worker
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Article authors
Sophie Baqué
Editor-in-Chief Mind HR
Antoine Piel
Section Head at Mind HR