How To Help

In addition to learning more about the situation, there are many ways in which you can make a difference.

Support Uyghur Groups

  • The Xinjiang Victims Database is an independent documentation platform designed to collect and store records of people detained in Xinjiang’s present reality. Read more about their work and help contribute to the database’s running costs via Gofundme.

  • The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) is a US-based research-based advocacy organisation that promotes rights for Uyghurs and others living in East Turkistan. It publishes reports and analysis to defend Uyghurs’ civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights according to international human rights standards. Read more about its work and lend your support here.

  • The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organisation that engages in a wide-range of awareness raising and advocacy campaigns about the human rights situation for Uyghurs in the PRC, concentrating on the United States Congress in Washington, EU member states, and EU and UN human rights mechanisms. You can read more about their work and donate here.

  • Campaign for Uyghurs works to promote and advocate for the human rights and democratic freedoms for the Uyghurs and other Turkic people in East Turkistan. The organisation provides policy recommendations, hosts speaking events and focuses on coordinated campaigns to raise awareness of the policies that the Uyghurs are facing. Read more about their work and donate here.

  • The Uyghur American Association (UAA) is a US-based organisation working to promote and preserve Uyghur culture, and support the right of Uyghur people to use peaceful, democratic means to determine their own political futures. You can read more about the UAA’s work and donate here.

  • The Save Uighur Campaign is an educational and advocacy project aimed at raising public awareness and resolve to help the Uighur people, through a combination of media exposure, public relations, and government action. Its broader mandate is to educate fellow citizens on social justice concerns and provide guidance for action through regular newsletters and extensive media engagement. Read more about Save Uighur’s work and donate here.

End Uyghur Forced Labour

  • As a result of the forced labour practices taking place in Xinjiang and the labour transfers of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities out of the province to factories across the country, products made in China that rely at least in part on low-skilled, labour intensive manufacturing at any point in their supply chain could be affected by Xinjiang-linked forced labour.

    A 2020 investigation by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) identified more than 80 Chinese and multinational companies across a variety of industries potentially linked to Uyghur forced labour. Investigations by the Helena Kennedy Centre (HKC) shed further light on Xinjiang-linked forced labour impacts global clothing, solar energy and PVC supply chains, among others.

  • Following the publication of reports from ASPI and HKC, several brands advised that they had instructed their vendors to terminate their relationships with the suppliers listed. Others said they have no direct contractual relationships with the suppliers implicated in the labour schemes, however no brands were able to rule out a link further down their supply chain.

    As the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour puts it:

    “There are no valid means for companies to verify that any workplace in the Uyghur Region is free of forced labour or to prevent the use of forced labour in these workplaces in line with human rights due diligence.

    The only way corporations can ensure they are not unwittingly bolstering the government’s repression is, therefore, to fully extricate their supply chains from the Uyghur Region. Further, corporations must prevent the use of forced labour in facilities elsewhere that use workers forcibly transferred from the Uyghur Region, including by ending business relationships.”

    For a full list of brands linked to Xinjiang and Uyghur forced labour, as well as statements brands have made on their involvement in the region, view the Brands Linked to Xinjiang section on this site and the list of companies committed to the steps outlined in the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour’s call to action.

  • Signed into law on 23 December 2021, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act made it U.S. policy to assume that all goods manufactured in Xinjiang are made with forced labour, requiring importers to provide convincing evidence that this is not the case. The bill further requires firms to disclose their dealings with Xinjiang.

    In the UK, despite a review by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee in March 2021 recommending that the government brings forward concrete plans to strengthen supply chain transparency obligations in the face of Uyghur forced labour allegations, the British government has not yet announced any significant new measures to prohibit UK businesses from profiting from the forced labour of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and other parts of China.

  • We can use our power as consumers to demand change, by boycotting brands that continue to operate in Xinjiang - or who have actively backtracked on statements condemning the human rights situation in Xinjiang following public and financial backlash from Chinese consumers and officials.

    We can also actively support companies that act responsibly and actively work to extricate their supply chains from the forced labour of Uyghurs and minorities.

    For a full list of brands linked to Xinjiang and Uyghur forced labour, as well as statements brands have made on their involvement in the region, view the Brands Linked to Xinjiang section.

    Learn more about the work of the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour and its mission.

Demand Political Action

  • While several countries have introduced sanctions targeting specific Chinese officials for the human rights abuses taking place in Xinjiang, the United States is so far the only country to have enacted legislation targeting China more broadly, with the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (UHRPA) in June 2020 and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) in December 2021.

    While the British government has made several announcements on potential legislative measures since January 2021, there has been little in the way of concrete government action. This is despite the November 2021 “Never Again” report by the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee, outlining the measures available to the UK government and international partners to stop the atrocities in Xinjiang.

    The following month, the Uyghur Tribunal released its judgment, finding that it was “satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the PRC, by the imposition of measures to prevent births intended to destroy a significant part of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as such, has committed genocide”.

    Despite this, the British government has continued to refuse to declare that the Chinese government actions taking place in the region constitute a genocide, nor has it provided any robust business guidance or legislative action on supply chain links to forced labour in Xinjiang.

    An update to the Health and Care Bill signed into law in May 2022, which includes an amendment aimed at eradicating “the use of goods and services in the NHS that are tainted by slavery and human trafficking”, only covers NHS procurement, does not detail specific legal measures for the approach that will be taken nor does it include any mention of Xinjiang.

  • Contact your local MP and ask them to take action on the following recommendations put forward in the “Never Again” report by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee:

    • Create an asylum fast-track for Uyghurs and other members of ethnic minority groups who are fleeing persecution in China

    • Create a legal requirement for businesses and public sector bodies to take concrete measures to prevent and remove the use of forced labour in their value chains and meaningful penalties for non-compliance

    • Impose punitive fines for non-compliance with the reporting elements of the Modern Slavery Act

    • Reduce the £36m threshold for businesses to be required to produce Modern Slavery Statements

    • Ban the import of all cotton products known to be produced in whole or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China

    • Issue guidance to business to implement modern means of traceability and product origin verification as part of their due diligence measures

    • Prohibit organisations and individuals in the UK from doing business with any companies known to be associated with the Xinjiang atrocities through the sanctions regime

    • Prohibit the use of equipment manufactured by companies such as Hikvision and Dahua