Switzerland Accepts NGO Complaint on EU Companies Profiting From Uzbek Child Labor
German activists targeting the European Union's companies alleged to be trading in Uzbek cotton and thus profiting from forced child labor are continuing to see responses to their complaints as Switzerland has now joined the United Kingdom in agreeing to review the appeal to a regional economic body.
Last October, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Germany filed a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Co-Cooperation and Development (OECD), a 33-member body based in Paris devoted to economic development, sustainable growth and financial stability.
In a statement distributed by e-mail March 29, Miriam Saage-Maas and Yvonne Veith of the Business and Human Rights Program of ECCHR in Berlin said the the Swiss National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD had accepted three of their complaints filed regarding cotton traders Louis Dreyfus, Paul Reinhart and Ecom Industrial
ECCHR, joined by partner organizations Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights of Germany, Guido Ehrler of Switzerland and Sherpa of France presented reports about systematic child labor and forced labor in Uzbekistan which they said could be related to seven cotton dealers from Switzerland, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The Swiss acceptance of the complaints does not mean that a finding has been made that these companies have acted inconsistently with OECD guidelines, but it does open up a mediation process. The Swiss NCP concluded that the issue of the influence on business partners and relationship to the supply chain can be discussed, and that the "investment nexus" argument is not valid. That notion, which involves a claim by companies that they do not have sufficient control over suppliers, was found not to be defined by OECD guidelines, and Switzerland, like the UK before it, rejected that argument as a reason not to hear the complaint and engage in the mediation.
The ECCHR lawyers say they expect a response from Germany by the end of April.
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