cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29029612
UK campaign group Stop Uyghur Genocide (SUG) will seek a judicial review of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) decision if it greenlights the initial public offering (IPO) of ultra-fast fashion giant Shein on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Shein is poised to pursue a listing on the London Stock Exchange in the upcoming half-year contingent to receiving regulatory consent.
The UK activist group alleges that Shein’s supply chain is tainted by cotton produced through Uyghur forced labour in China.
It asserts the FCA should reject the listing application as so-called use of forced labour in supply chains is unlawful under the Modern Slavery Act, so it says Shein would have to explain company profits in light of proceeds of crime laws.
The FCA has refrained from commenting on speculative listings, while Shein did not respond to Just Style’s request for comment but last month it maintained that it enforces a strict prohibition of forced labour within its global supply chain.
SUG has imposed a two-week ultimatum on the FCA to address its sixth formal communication in under seven months, which also marks the start of the judicial review process.
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Last year, SUG dispatched this same dossier to the FCA. It allegedly demonstrates a substantial risk of forced labour within Shein’s supply chain, a factor that SUG argues should preclude the retailer from listing on the LSE.
So no actual evidence of forced labour, just a possibility it exists.
As an addition:
Since 2018, evidence of forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic and Muslim majority peoples has emerged in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region). […] Forced labour imposed by private actors is also reported, in addition to forced marriage and organ trafficking, with vulnerability primarily driven by discriminatory government practices. While China demonstrated some efforts to tackle modern slavery through sustained coordination at the national and regional levels – including by adopting a new national action plan for 2021 to 2030[…] – its overall response is critically undermined by the use of state-imposed forced labour.
