Join us in keeping Uyghur forced labor out of shopping carts.
Download HRF’s award-winning Uyghur Forced Labor Checker Google Chrome extension:
Right now, more than one million Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim minorities are arbitrarily detained and working in forced labor camps across China, where they are regularly subjected to human rights abuses.
One in five cotton garments in the apparel industry worldwide is linked to Uyghur forced labor, according to the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. Uyghur people are native to northwestern China’s Uyghur Region, known to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Uyghurs are Muslim, have their own language, their own culture, and their own identity, distinct from the Han Chinese. The CCP wants to erase the Uyghur identity. Since 2017, in a systematic effort to dehumanize and eventually eliminate the Uyghur population, the CCP has arbitrarily detained more than one million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities. In the camps, Uyghurs are forced to study Chinese and Chinese culture and forbidden from speaking and practicing their own language and culture. They are also regularly subjected to human rights abuses like inhumane treatment, sexual- and gender-based violence, and torture. This system of abuse perpetrated by the CCP has been recognized as genocide by several democracies, including the United States and Canada.
Discounted Lives is an installation that aims to raise awareness about Uyghur forced labor. The installation displays two racks of identical white t-shirts — one, made in China and priced at $4.99 and the other, made in a democracy and priced at $44.99 — as well as portraits of Uyghurs detained in the camps, sourced by the Victims of Communism Foundation. The receipts reveal the reasons behind the price difference, including forced labor and other human rights violations. Discounted Lives urges consumers to think twice about their purchases and demands transparency from brands.
Join us in keeping Uyghur forced labor out of shopping carts.
Download HRF’s award-winning Uyghur Forced Labor Checker Google Chrome extension:
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Wear Your Values is an HRF program that engages the fashion industry in the human rights movement, promotes transparency and human rights in the supply chain, and brings awareness to the hidden social costs of the industry through articles, events, exhibitions, panel discussions, and talks that are designed to educate consumers. HRF is part of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region, dedicated to ending forced labor and human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese government against the Uyghur population and other Turkic and Muslim-majority people.