The Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional Rights (ECCHR), with the support of Prakken d'Oliveira human rights lawyers, has filed a criminal complaint against several Dutch and U.S. textile and fashion brands that have their European headquarters in the Netherlands - Patagonia, Nike, C&A and State of Art.
They argue that the companies may have been directly or indirectly involved in the forced labor of members of the Uighur population in China's Xinjiang province. They call on Dutch prosecutors to investigate the companies' alleged complicity in human rights abuses that could amount to crimes against humanity.
After Germany and France, the Netherlands should now also decide
ECCHR also filed similar criminal complaints in Germany and France against C&A, Nike, and State of the Art, among others, with casework on China beginning in April 2021, when ECCHR supported its partner organization Sherpa's complaint in France. There, other NGOs and a Uyghur survivor also filed complaints against Inditex, Uniqlo, SMCP, and Skechers. The authorities have already started investigations. read more