{"id":7618,"date":"2021-01-13T17:14:13","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T17:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=10fe80ff65e33d8d1d8d094c88885a22"},"modified":"2021-01-13T17:14:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T17:14:13","slug":"dominic-raab-announces-new-measures-to-halt-uk-complicity-in-xinjiang-forced-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/13\/dominic-raab-announces-new-measures-to-halt-uk-complicity-in-xinjiang-forced-labour\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominic Raab announces new measures to halt UK complicity in Xinjiang forced labour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has announced a set of business measures that intend to ensure that British firms are \u201cnot complicit in, nor profiting from\u201d human rights violations in China\u2019s Xinjiang province.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The aim, Raab set out was to,<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>\u201censure no company that profits from forced labour in Xinjiang can do business in the UK, that no UK business is involved in their supply chains\u201d.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incursions on the rights of China\u2019s Uyghur minority have been increasing in frequency in recent years; with the introduction of internment camps, mass surveillance and forced labour drawing widespread condemnation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In December 2020, documents that provided insight into the use of forced labour in Xinjiang were published, finding evidence of Uyghur forced labour in manufacturing and garment making.\u00a0 The scale of such labour is truly unprecedented, with 85% of China\u2019s cotton, and 20% of the world&#8217;s cotton, produced in Xinjiang.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raab\u2019s statement, which comes in response to concerns over UK complicity in such violations, announced a set of measures including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A review of export controls to ensure the government is doing all it can to prevent the exports of goods that may contribute to Xinjiang human rights abuses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New financial penalties on businesses who fail to publish annual modern slavery statements, under the Modern Slavery Act.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The introduction of guidance for UK business which sets out the specific risks undertaken by organisations with links to Xinjiang.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The provision of guidance to all UK public bodies to use public procurement legislation to exclude suppliers where there is evidence of human rights violations in supply chains.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The establishment of a campaign of business engagement to reinforce the need for UK businesses to take action.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conservative Ministers were vocal in their support of the measures, with Home Secretary, Priti Patel, calling on British businesses and public bodies to \u201cbe more vigilant\u201d and:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>\u201censure they are not inadvertently allowing forced labour in their supply chains\u201d<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This sentiment was echoed by Trade Secretary, Liz Truss, who said that:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b>\u201cForced labour, anywhere in the world, is unacceptable. This Government wants to work with businesses to support responsible practices, and ensure British consumers are not unwittingly buying products that support the cruelty we are witnessing against the Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.\u201d<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The introduction of these measures comes at a time when the British government is reconsidering its relationship with China. The Conservative Party Human Rights Commission called for a \u201ccomprehensive review\u201d of policy toward China, condemning the flagrant persecution of Uyghur Muslims and the establishment of an &#8220;Orwellian surveillance state&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the introduction of new measures, which highlight the blatant incursions on human rights in Xinjiang are welcome, it remains to be seen whether the government will enforce them once the UK attempts to negotiate a free-trade agreement with China.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/observatoryihr.org\/news\/dominic-raab-announces-new-measures-to-halt-uk-complicity-in-xinjiang-forced-labour\/\">Dominic Raab announces new measures to halt UK complicity in Xinjiang forced labour<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/observatoryihr.org\/\">International Observatory of Human Rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/observatoryihr.org\/news\/dominic-raab-announces-new-measures-to-halt-uk-complicity-in-xinjiang-forced-labour\/\">International Observatory of Human Rights<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has announced a set of business measures that intend to ensure that British firms are \u201cnot complicit in, nor profiting from\u201d human rights violations in China\u2019s Xinjiang province.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/observatoryihr.org\/news\/dominic-raab-announces-new-measures-to-halt-uk-complicity-in-xinjiang-forced-labour\/\">Dominic Raab announces new measures to halt UK complicity in Xinjiang forced labour<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/observatoryihr.org\/\">International Observatory of Human Rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":485,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/485"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7619,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7618\/revisions\/7619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}