{"id":43011,"date":"2022-12-09T18:26:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T18:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/?p=43011"},"modified":"2022-12-09T18:26:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T18:26:34","slug":"corporate-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/corporate-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights Groups Condemn State Department Decision to Honor Intel and Gap, Inc., Companies Listed on Jewish World Watch Uyghur Forced Labor Database"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Washington, D.C. \u2013<\/strong> Today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized two companies with the State Department\u2019s prestigious Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) with well-known and extensively-documented ties to Uyghur forced labor. Human rights groups, including Jewish World Watch and Uyghur Human Rights Project, condemn the decision. Nominated by the U.S. missions in Costa Rica and India, the companies, Intel and Gap, Inc., respectively, have facilities in Xinjiang, China, the region where the Department\u2019s own genocide determination was focused.<\/p>

Jewish World Watch\u2019s Uyghur Forced Labor Database ties Intel to five facilities under scrutiny for forced labor. Intel\u2019s presence in Xinjiang also includes ongoing investment and partnerships that produce the processors central to the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s growing surveillance state. Additionally, according to the Database, Gap, Inc., has dozens of implicated suppliers in its chain. More than 20 percent of the world’s cotton comes from China, with the Xinjiang region producing 85 percent of exported cotton.<\/p>

\u201cThe U.S. Department of State\u2019s decision to honor companies with expansive ties to Xinjiang weakens the hard-fought progress that has been made toward Uyghur human rights,\u201d said Serena Oberstein, Jewish World Watch Executive Director.<\/strong> \u201cOur leaders must consider the consequences and message this sends to businesses perpetrating forced labor abuses and the People\u2019s Republic of China.\u201d<\/p>

With these known implications, Jewish World Watch and the Uyghur Human Rights Project are calling on Secretary Blinken to rescind Friday\u2019s awards to Intel and Gap, Inc.<\/p>

\u201cWhen the U.S. State Department honors companies for being leaders in corporate responsibility in one country, they should at least do minimal due diligence to ensure those companies are not complicit in mass atrocities in another country where that company does business,\u201d stated Kelley E. Currie, former Ambassador for the Secretary’s Office of Global Women\u2019s Issues.<\/strong> \u201cInformation about Intel\u2019s and Gap\u2019s connections to the Uyghur genocide is not new and is publicly available. State should have known and done better.\u201d<\/p>

With the recent passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the increased focus on human rights in Xinjiang, it is unconscionable for the U.S. State Department to bestow this annual honor on these two companies.<\/p>

“The parent companies of two awardees, Intel and GAP, kept up business ties with Chinese companies even when it was clear they were participating in Uyghur forced labor and total government surveillance,\u201d said Omer Kanat, Uyghur Human Rights Project Executive Director.<\/strong> \u201cHow can they be good corporate citizens?”<\/span><\/p>

Should the Department proceed with the awards, the decision risks the progress of Uyghur justice and signals to the Chinese Communist Party that ending Uyghur slave labor is not a top priority for the United States.<\/p>

Attachment: Jewish World Watch Uyghur Forced Labor Documentation \u2013 Intel & Gap (PDF).<\/p>

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Take action for Uyghur human rights today \u2013 urge your Senators to support the Uyghur Policy Act:<\/b><\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdvocate<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized two companies with the State Department\u2019s prestigious Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) with well-known and extensively-documented ties to Uyghur forced labor. Human rights groups, including Jewish World Watch and Uyghur Human Rights Project, condemn the decision. Nominated by the U.S. missions in Costa Rica and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":43016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,188],"tags":[135,464,159,140,143,478],"class_list":["post-43011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news-features","tag-armenia","tag-armenian-genocide","tag-forced-labor","tag-genocide","tag-jewish","tag-uyghur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43011"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43017,"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43011\/revisions\/43017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jww.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}