FORCED LABOR IN VW CARS. FINFISHER. IRAN.
JUNE 2023 | NEWSLETTER 90
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It has come to light in several reports that the use of forced labor is rampant within the supply chains of Germany’s bedrock industry – automobile manufacture. In its second complaint under the German Supply Chain Act, ECCHR alleges that powerful German automakers, including VW, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, have failed to take adequate steps to identify and prevent forced labor risks associated with their suppliers in the Uyghur Region in China. Learn more about this case and others in this newsletter.
The ECCHR Team
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There is a high risk of forced labor within the entire automotive supply chain in the Uyghur Region – down to the steel, aluminum, copper, batteries, electronics and interiors © Cred/Canva |
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German economic engine fueled by forced labor in China?
Since January 2023, the German Supply Chain Act requires that large German firms actively scrutinize their supplier networks for signs of human rights abuses – even in regions that are notoriously difficult to monitor. As part of a state-sponsored program, Uyghurs are subjugated to conditions of constant surveillance, ghettoization, re-education and forced labor. In 2021, ECCHR already worked to expose forced labor within the cotton and garment industries, but recent reports from Sheffield Hallam University have warned that the risk of forced labor is also present in the entire automotive supply chain in the Uyghur Region. Germany’s three largest automakers, VW, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, have been connected to suppliers operating in the Uyghur Region but, thus far, have failed to demonstrate that they are upholding their human rights due diligence obligations.
The restrictive nature of this system of exploitation in China makes it impossible to inspect supplier facilities – nor is it possible for those affected to seek legal redress without risking their own safety. This is why ECCHR, with support of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labor, has filed a complaint against these companies with the German authority BAFA. The complaint argues that these firms must provide more transparency about their efforts to identify and prevent risks of state-sponsored forced labor within their supply chains. If they cannot do this, the only option is for them to cease their business activities in the region. Otherwise, BMW, VW and Mercedes-Benz run the risk of being complicit in crimes against humanity.
Read more about the case here |
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INTERNATIONAL CRIMES AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Criminal complaint against judicial authorities in Iran
Kidnapped in Dubai, the German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd has already endured torture and illegal detention in Iran. Now, he has been sentenced to death. As he is also a German citizen, German judicial authorities are obliged to investigate the case, which is why his daughter, with ECCHR’s support, filed a criminal complaint with the German Federal Public Prosecutor. While the complaint focuses on eight high-ranking members of the Iranian judiciary and intelligence service, the aim is also to trigger structural proceedings. This would likely bring evidence of other crimes against humanity to light for future prosecutions. The Iranian regime has engaged in systematic acts of torture and sexual violence, along with executions and enforced disappearances, affecting tens of thousands, especially amidst the recent crackdown on the feminist revolution. With this case, German authorities can initiate international efforts to bring high-ranking members of the regime to justice for these crimes. Learn more about the caseRead the statement by Prof. Dr. Däubler-Gmelin, former Federal Minister of Justice, here (only in german) Watch the video of the press conference (only in german) |
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BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Executives of German spyware conglomerate FinFinisher indicted
Once FinSpy accesses your smartphone, the malware can track your location, monitor your communications, as well as extract all your data. A tool coveted by authoritarian regimes, in Bahrain, Turkey and Myanmar among others, such surveillance spyware is often mobilized to crush political opposition, as well as silence journalists and human rights defenders. Despite the fact that Germany has not authorized the export of such technology since 2015, updated versions of the German spyware were discovered in Turkey in 2017 on a campaign website for the political opposition party – which likely led to the surveillance of numerous political activists and journalists. After ECCHR and partners filed a criminal complaint against the Munich-based corporate group in 2019, the Public Prosecutor’s Office authorized the search of FinFisher offices in 2020, and in 2022, seized all corporate accounts, forcing the company to declare bankruptcy. Now, the Public Prosecutor has indicted four FinFisher executives, charging them with intentionally violating export licensing requirements – they now face criminal prosecution. Read more about the case |
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Resisting surveillance technologies ECCHR fights authoritarianism in all its manifestations. New forms of digital surveillance and data mining undermine the rights of people and endanger human rights defenders, journalists and those resisting oppression.
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© Martin Grandjean/creativecommons.org |
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© Laura Fiorio
Art exhibition My Fascist Grandpa – Lost histories in the ruins of colonial monuments
In May, ECCHR opened an exhibition of Laura Fiorio’s work, which was also featured in our 2022 annual report. Her project involved collecting archival material on the Italian colonial invasion of Ethiopia during Mussolini’s fascist rule and recontextualizing it to provoke an engagement with forgotten histories of anti-colonial resistance. The exhibition explored how colonial power also includes the power to shape the historical record. In order to address this difficult heritage, decades after military conflict, Fiorio projected archival material and memorabilia onto the architectural remainders of this fascist past and photographed the results.
If you want to visit the exhibition, please contact info@ecchr.eu
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ECCHR welcomes new colleagues and trainees
Andrea Ries joined the Institute for Legal Intervention in June as Coordinator of the Critical Legal Training program.
Leona Hansen and Pedro Sanz joined the Border Justice team in June as trainees.
Rena Hänel joined the Business and Human Rights team in June as a trainee.
Marlena Onochie joind the Institute for Legal Intervention in April as a student assistant.
Ibrahim Mahfouz joined the Institute for Legal Intervention in May as Event Manager.
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EVENTS
The Evolution of Reparations Principles into Contemporary Remedies
This event will bring together human rights defenders from across the globe to examine the limited legal avenues available for victims of colonial crimes against humanity, as well as survivors and descendants who still endure their harmful repercussions even today. To contextualize the philosophical and moral debates on reparations in Germany, participants will explore the evolution of the basic legal right to reparations, the barriers that petitioners from the Global South must overcome, and new efforts by advocates and academics to “decolonize” international human rights law itself.
27 June 2023, 5:30 pm, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (in-person and in English)
Register here by 22 June to attend.
Memory Theatre
This multimedia lecture with Maksym Rokmaniko (Center for Spatial Technologies) and Eyal Weizman (Forensic Architecture/Forensis) will examine the bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theatre on 16 March 2022, one of the worst atrocities committed against civilians by Russian forces in Ukraine. ECCHR also collaborates with both groups on investigating war crimes in Ukraine. Much more than a theater building, roughly two thousand civilians had also found shelter there during the invasion, converting it into an architectural-scale city with places for debate, shelter and mutual care. Until the site was bulldozed by Russian occupying forces, the building wreckage also stood as evidence of a grave war crime.
23 June, 9:00 – 10:30 pm, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Main Stage
More info and tickets here
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FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE
The world can only be just when human rights are universally recognized and guaranteed for everyone. This is what we are fighting for across the globe:
with those affected, with partners, with legal means.
Thank you for helping us in our efforts to make this happen |
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Joint plaintiff Ruham Hawash (left) recounts the experience of testifying in Germany on Syrian state crimes. Wassim Muktad (far right) also delivered a powerful condemnation of Syrian state torture and enforced disappearance at the trial. © Mohamed Badarne/ECCHR |
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Syrian state torture on trial – Book launchTo accompany the release of our joint book publication on the Syria trial in Koblenz with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), ECCHR held a book launch on May 15. The event featured music, a theatrical reading and panel discussions with contributors to the anthology, joint plaintiffs in the trial, and ECCHR legal advisors. The trilingual anthology offers insights into the legal proceedings and situates them in a larger historical, social and legal context. Wassim Muktad, musician and joint plaintiff in the trial, started off the event with a musical performance. To order Syrian State Torture on Trial or to download the PDF, please visit this site.  |
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ECCHR @ re:publica 2023: On climate justice and reparations
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Edi and Asmania, two residents of Pari island, joined Miriam Saage-Maaß (ECCHR) and Parid Ridwanuddin (WAHLI) on stage to discuss the dangers of rising sea levels for island residents. © ECCHR
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At the 2023 digital society festival re:publica, we participated in two talks, which explored this year’s theme “CASH” through the lens of ECCHR’s work on corporate accountability, climate justice and climate reparations casework. On 5 June, Laura Duarte Reyes, an ECCHR legal advisor, joined Barbara Hermann in a discussion about how corporations bear significant responsibility for the climate crisis, especially in light of the fact that many of them have already known of the potentially devastating effects of excess greenhouse gases for decades.
Watch the footage here.
On 7 June, ECCHR Legal Director Miriam Saage-Maaß took the stage with Edi and Asmania, two residents of the Indonesian island of Pari, which is now existentially threatened by rising sea levels. With ECCHR’s support, Edi and Asmania, along with two other island residents, are suing the Swiss cement company Holcim for its massive contribution to global warming. In the talk, they discussed how the case is unique because they are demanding reparations for past climate-related damages on the island, a contribution to flood-protection measures, as well as a significant reduction in Holcim’s carbon footprint.
Watch the footage here.
Members of ECCHR, along with the plaintiffs Edi und Asmania, also attended the “Bonn Climate Change Conference – Imagining Just Climate Futures – Joint Event on Loss and Damages” on 14 June. More info here. |
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Bank details Name: ECCHR Bank: Berliner Volksbank IBAN: DE77 100 90000 885360 7011 BIC: BEVODEBB
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European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights e.V. (ECCHR)
Wolfgang Kaleck
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Deutschland
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