"Mass surveillance of the Uyghurs: STP files complaint against UBS", 22 Jun 2020

The Swiss bank UBS maintains a business relationship with the Chinese company Hikvision, the world’s largest developer and manufacturer of surveillance technologies. Hikvision plays a central role in the mass surveillance of the Uyghurs in the Chinese province of Xinjiang (East Turkestan). Although the devastating human rights situation in the region has been known for years and Hikvision has been blacklisted by the US government since Autumn 2019, research shows that UBS still maintains financial ties with the technology company. For this reason, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is filing a complaint with the Swiss National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines today... According to research by the STP, UBS has maintained a business relationship with Hikvision since 2016. The bank is involved in the technology company through investment products and services as well as holds shares in the name of unknown investors as a “nominee shareholder”. Even though the human rights crisis in Xinjiang (East Turkestan) has been publicly known since mid-2018 and has been repeatedly criticized by the UN and the Swiss government, the bank still had products worth US$ 6.36 million on offer at the end of 2019. UBS has continued to invest in Hikvision through investment products since and increased its positions in February 2020...