LONDON (AFP) - Rights activists in Britain launched a campaign on
Sunday calling on Swedish retail giant H&M to take concrete
action to stop using cotton harvested by forced labour in
Uzbekistan.
H&M, the world's second-largest fashion retailer, is one of
more than 100 companies that have signed a global pledge in the
past year promising to "not knowingly" use Uzbek cotton in their
clothes, but campaigners said they want it to do more.
"We want to know what's behind that pledge, what steps have
companies taken to actually ensure that Uzbek cotton isn't in their
supply chain," said Ms Joanna Ewart-James, programme coordinator at
Anti-Slavery International, a British rights group.
"The problem is this practice of forced labour is happening in
cotton fields that are many steps removed from the final garment,
so it's quite difficult to knowingly know what's going on in your
supply chain.
ST