• UK Court of Appeal overturns 2023 UK High Court judgement stating UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) was wrong not to investigate cotton imports farmed by enslaved Uyhurs from Xinjiang, China.
• The landmark ruling will now mean the NCA no longer needs evidence, to investigate Chinese cotton imports or imports in general that are known to be derived through the ‘Proceeds of Crime Act’.
The Court of Appeal found that the UK National Crime Agency’s (NCA) decision to refuse to investigate imported cotton goods from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China (XUAR), where there is known slave labour cotton production, was unlawful.
In a landmark ruling, handed down by three Court of Appeal judges, the Lady Chief Justice, Lord Justice Bean, and Lady Justice Andrews, clarified the law on suspect imported goods in two key ways:
1. The NCA does not need to identify specific evidence of “unlawful conduct” for it to decide to open an investigation; and
2. paying market value or an adequate consideration, for goods or property does not cleanse said goods or property of its criminal nature anywhere in the supply chain.
The Court had also underlined that 85% of cotton grown in China comes from the XUAR and that it is accepted that there is “a diverse, substantial, and growing body of evidence that serious human rights abuses are occurring in the XUAR cotton industry on a large scale.”
Build up to the Landmark Ruling
In January 2023, the UK’s High Court ruled against human rights campaigners claiming British crime and customs authorities had failed to stop the importation of cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, which is at the centre of allegations of forced labour.
In the filing initially brought forward in October 2022, the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and World Uyghur Congress (WUC) stated that the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) office had not stopped the importation of cotton “produced by enslaved Uyghurs in East Turkestan”, raising arguments that the cotton in question was “criminal property” because it was obtained as a result of forced labour. GLAN also said the authorities had “the power to investigate these imports but refuse to exercise it”.
Upon delivery of the court’s verdict, the judge noted that the decision being made did not in any way “undermine the striking consensus in the evidence that there are clear and widespread abuses in the cotton industry in [Xinjiang], involving human rights violations and the exploitation of forced labour”.
Following the hearing, GLAN said it would be considering whether to appeal the verdict while continuing to push for international accountability for “the atrocity crimes being perpetrated against Turkic people by the Chinese authorities”.
UN Xinjiang Investigation
The 2023 decision came just one month after the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a detailed report following its assessment of the region in question.
Before the investigation, Xinjiang, which produces a fifth of the world’s cotton, had been subject to an increasing number of allegations that claimed around 1.6 million Uyghur Muslims were being held in incarceration camps and undergoing forced labour.
The UN stated that it had found evidence of “serious human rights violations” that had been committed, as well as concerning issues linked to China’s legal and policy framework on countering terrorism.
Among its findings, the UN reported signs of “a deprivation of liberty” among “placement” camps and links between poverty alleviation schemes and the country’s methods to counter religious “extremism”, raising more concerns.
Before the report was published, the likes of H&M, Nike, Burberry and Adidas either cut ties with suppliers located in the region or publicly denounced the alleged methods owing to strong evidence that Uyghur slave labour was used in the production of their garments.
To date, brands such as Shein, Uniqlo and Zionist-run Zara (amongst others) still use cotton from the Xinjiang region.
Uyghur Muslims Help set a Precedent.
It has been 18 months since the original hearing, and the legal team behind the 2023 case are no longer alone in tackling the NCA.
Spotlight on Corruption is an organisation that highlights the UK’s role in corruption at home and abroad, with a strong focus on the harm it causes, while campaigning to improve the UK’s legal systems and the enforcement of the law.
In what was already a strong team comprising many firms supporting the Uyghur injustice, Spotlight on Corruption felt it could make further contributions to the case to make it even stronger.
They then intervened at the appeal stage and took the lead on the case where the legal support for the World Uyghur Congress consisted of no less than nine legal representatives from seven law practices and chambers.
The appeal eventually focused on a narrow point – whether the NCA had erred in their interpretation of the law in refusing to open a criminal investigation into the consignments of cotton products under the Proceeds of Crime Act and open a civil investigation to recover the cotton products and the proceeds of sales.
Following the decision, which was found in the World Uyghur Congress’s favour, Their representatives GLAN stated,
“The Chinese detention program is the largest of its kind since World War II, aiming to destroy the Uyghur identity and unique culture. Well-documented evidence has proven that detainees are subjected to torture, sexual violence, deprivation of necessities, forced medical experimentation, and forced labour. An independent tribunal led by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC declared it as genocide and crimes against humanity, while the UN concluded it could constitute possible crimes against humanity. UK MPs and several countries, including the US, Canada and the Netherlands have declared this programme to be genocide and accused China of crimes against humanity. Millions of Uyghurs are now detained and forced to produce cotton which evidence suggests ends up in UK high street stores such as Uniqlo and Zara. The UK authorities could determine this as part of an investigation but have refused.”
The circumstances have left the Zionist UK Government with another embarrassing headache, something which could have been easily avoided. Even the USA and Canada have banned imports of shipments that came from Xinjiang, while highlighting the slave labour of Uyghurs being the overriding factor which led them to make such decisions. The NCA finds itself back in the same position it was almost two years ago, where it has to now reconsider its decision to not carry out an investigation. Let us hope for our Uyghur brothers’ and sisters’ sake that the right decision is taken this time.
