Business and Human Rights
“We welcome the addition of three entities in the seafood, aluminum, and footwear sectors by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to the 'Entity List' of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. These entities include the Shandong Meijia Group, which we asked DHS to add following the October 2023 CECC hearing on seafood imports linked to forced labor.
“Today’s action sends a clear message to everyone from supermarkets to U.S. government agencies that the import of seafood and other goods connected to forced labor in China will not be tolerated.
“We also pledge continued support for providing DHS with the tools and resources needed to robustly implement today's action.”
(Washington)—Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Chair and Co-chair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), convened a hearing this week examining social compliance auditing and certifications of factories and supply chains in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). At the hearing “Factories and Fraud in the PRC: How Human Rights Violations Make Audits Impossible,” the Commission heard from witnesses about the failure of social audits to identify forced labor in the supply chains of major brands and retailers, including the garment and automaker industries.
Social compliance auditing and certifications of factories and supply chains in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) proliferated over the past 20 years as global brands and retailers sought to respond to concerns over human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act requires that supply chains be free of forced labor, yet companies are using social audits and certifications to help cover up rather than expose human rights abuses.
(Washington)— Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Chair and Cochair respectively of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), held a hearing this week looking at the dominance of Chinese companies in the cobalt mining industry of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and how the exploitation of child and forced labor in this sector in the DRC impacts a global supply chain dependent on cobalt for a range of modern products.
Child and forced labor taint the supply chain of cobalt, a metal that is a critical component in the lithium-ion batteries and other products important for modern technologies, including electric vehicles.
(Washington)—Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Chair and Cochair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) today released letters to the chief executives of Costco and ADI , asking questions about the ongoing sales of security equipment made by Hikvision and Dahua, PRC-based brands whose products are banned for use by the U.S. Government and implicated in assisting with genocide and other horrific human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).