The Canadian Ombudsman for Responsible Business has launched investigations into the Canadian subsidiary of the US sporting goods manufacturer Nike and a Canadian mining company for possible human rights violations in China initiated. The companies are suspected of having benefited from Uyghur forced laborers along their supply chains, the authority said on Tuesday (local time). Nike Canada is said to have worked with Chinese companies that use forced labor from the Muslim minority.
A group of human rights organizations filed a complaint against Nike and mining company Dynasty Gold last June. According to the ombudsman, the latter is said to have “benefited from the use of Uyghur forced laborers in a mine in China in which Dynasty Gold holds a majority stake”.
According to the ombudsman, Nike now states that it no longer has any connections to the Chinese companies in question. Dynasty Gold said it no longer had operational control of the mine and the allegations only emerged after it withdrew from the region.
The China business had recently given Nike a jump in sales. The Adidas-Rivale exceeded its own growth expectations and analysts’ forecasts in the fourth quarter of the 2022/23 financial year thanks to the strong recovery in China. Sales from March to the end of May were $12.8 billion worldwide, up five percent year-on-year.
For years, China has been accused of systematically repressing the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the north-western province of Xinjiang. More than a million people are being held in camps in the region, according to human rights organizations. Beijing is accused, among other things, of forced sterilization and forced labour. A number of Western companies, especially in the textile sector, are suspected of benefiting or having benefited.