abusesaffiliationarrow-downarrow-leftarrow-rightarrow-upattack-typeburgerchevron-downchevron-leftchevron-rightchevron-upClock iconclosedeletedevelopment-povertydiscriminationdollardownloademailenvironmentexternal-linkfacebookfiltergenderglobegroupshealthC4067174-3DD9-4B9E-AD64-284FDAAE6338@1xinformation-outlineinformationinstagraminvestment-trade-globalisationissueslabourlanguagesShapeCombined Shapeline, chart, up, arrow, graphLinkedInlocationmap-pinminusnewsorganisationotheroverviewpluspreviewArtboard 185profilerefreshIconnewssearchsecurityPathStock downStock steadyStock uptagticktooltiptwitteruniversalityweb

這頁面沒有繁體中文版本,現以English顯示

非政府組織回答

2023年7月25日

Cotton Campaign rejoinder to VDMA

Dear Mr. Haeusgen:

Thank you for your communication dated July 12, 2023, in response to our letter from June 20, 2023. While we appreciate your commitment to support the scope of laws designed to end child and forced labor, we express deep concern about your approach to the situation in Turkmenistan.

All cotton originating in Turkmenistan is produced by the state with the systematic and widespread forced labor of hundreds of thousands of teachers, healthcare workers, other state employees, and sometimes children. There is a well-documented record of reporting and communication from international expert bodies, finding that Turkmenistan has made insufficient progress to end its state-imposed forced labor system in cotton, including from the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards and the UN Human Rights Committee.

Turkmenistan does not import cotton, which means that all cotton used in the textile industry in Turkmenistan is produced with state-imposed forced labor.

Doing business with the textile industry in Turkmenistan and providing machinery and equipment to cotton ginneries, spinning mills, fabrics mills, sewing units, and other production units in the textile manufacturing industry of Turkmenistan plays a major role in supporting the state-imposed forced labor system in cotton production.

  1. The German companies that sell machines and equipment for usage in the Turkmen textile industry benefit from the forced labor system.
  2. They also support the perpetuation of the forced labor system and, by facilitating the production of forced labor Turkmen cotton into finished and semi-finished products, they facilitate Turkmen cotton entering global supply chains, in violation of import ban regulations and legal and ethical obligations on companies not to use goods made with forced labor.

For this reason, you should require your members to end business relationships with Turkmenistan’s textile industry. Instead, you should use your engagement with Turkmen stakeholders to pressure the government of Turkmenistan to end its forced labor system...

While the OECD standards encourage lead firms to work with suppliers towards continuous improvement, the standards also account for situations where mitigation is not feasible or because of the severity of the adverse impact, where the only responsible course of action is disengagement, such as contexts of state-imposed forced labor. This is due to the inability to conduct due diligence on the ground and the fact that no company has or will have enough leverage to work towards any improvement in practice. In situations of state-imposed forced labor, such as in Turkmenistan, businesses are unable to prevent or mitigate human rights abuses. There are no valid means for companies to verify that any cotton picked in Turkmenistan is free of forced labor, nor can companies take action to prevent the use of forced labor in the Turkmen cotton harvest. Companies cannot even enter the country to conduct their own due diligence...

In your letter, you noted that “the European Union supports economic cooperation with the country and regularly reviews the human rights situation in direct talks with Turkmenistan”. We would like to bring to your attention that the European Parliament has not approved the EU-Turkmenistan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) because of strong concerns about human rights violations committed by the government of Turkmenistan. In 2019, the Parliament adopted a resolution setting out concrete human rights benchmarks that it expects to see sustainable progress on by Turkmenistan before giving its consent to the PCA...

[full response attached]

時間線

隱私資訊

本網站使用 cookie 和其他網絡存儲技術。您可以在下方設置您的隱私選項。您所作的更改將立即生效。

有關我們使用網絡儲存技術的更多資訊,請參閱我們的 數據使用和 Cookie 政策

Strictly necessary storage

ON
OFF

Necessary storage enables core site functionality. This site cannot function without it, so it can only be disabled by changing settings in your browser.

分析cookie

ON
OFF

您瀏覽本網頁時我們將以Google Analytics收集信息。接受此cookie將有助我們理解您的瀏覽資訊,並協助我們改善呈現資訊的方法。所有分析資訊都以匿名方式收集,我們並不能用相關資訊得到您的個人信息。谷歌在所有主要瀏覽器中都提供退出Google Analytics的添加應用程式。

市場營銷cookies

ON
OFF

我們從第三方網站獲得企業責任資訊,當中包括社交媒體和搜尋引擎。這些cookie協助我們理解相關瀏覽數據。

您在此網站上的隱私選項

本網站使用 cookie 和其他網絡儲存技術來增強您在必要核心功能之外的體驗。