Human Rights Crisis in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region - Practical Guidance for Investors

Описание: Since 2017, the Chinese government has placed an estimated 1.8 million predominantly predominantly Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples, including Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Hui, in detention camps, prisons, and factories across the Uyghur Region in China. 

This detention underpins systems of repression, in which business enterprises are involved, including wide-spread forced labor of people in and from the Uyghur Region who have been made to work in business enterprises across China; and mass surveillance of people in and from the Uyghur Region, through the use of technology.

Global companies have operations, investments, partnerships, and other business relationships in the Uyghur Region across many sectors. Institutional investors can potentially be connected to these egregious human rights abuses through their investments in these companies.

The goal of the webinar was for investors to:
Increase their understanding of the scale and nature of the repression in the Uyghur Region and the complicity of companies in this abuse;
Understand the salient risks to people associated with the business activities of their portfolio companies in or connected with the Uyghur Region;
Provide guidance to investors on how to engage with its portfolio companies to identify, prevent and mitigate those risks, and where that is not possible, to consider divestment; and
Collaborate with other investors, civil society stakeholders, international organizations, and policymakers – to stop, prevent, and mitigate risks associated with investments. 

Our expert speakers offered critical perspectives for investors to navigate this human rights crisis:
Rahima Mahmut, UK Project Director & Zumretay Arkin, Program Director & Advocacy, World Uyghur Congress
Megha Rajagopalan, International Correspondent, BuzzFeed News
Mariefaye Bechrakis, Program Manager and Research Associate, CSIS
Shoko Sekiguchi, Snr. Responsible Investment Research Associate, Domini Impact Investment

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE:
The Investor Alliance for Human Rights is a collective action platform for responsible investment that is grounded in respect for people’s fundamental rights. We are a membership-based, non-profit initiative focusing on the investor responsibility to respect human rights, corporate engagements that drive responsible business conduct, and standard-setting activities that push for robust business and human rights policies. Visit us at: https://investorsforhumanrights.org/