NEW YORK (April 27, 2022)
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce that the organization’s Uyghur Forced Labor Checker has won The Webby People’s Voice Award in the Public Service & Activism: Advertising, Media & PR category and The Webby Award in the Web Services & Applications: Websites and Mobile Sites category in the 26th annual Webby Awards.
Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international awards organization honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996, The Webby Awards receives thousands of entries from all 50 states and 70 countries worldwide, and is judged by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a global organization of industry experts and technology innovators.
To date, more than one million Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples have been arbitrarily detained and forced to work in labor camps across China — simply due to their ethnicity, culture, and religion. Within these facilities, detainees are under constant surveillance, and are subject to torture, rape, forced sterilizations, political indoctrination, and other grave human rights abuses. According to the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour, “virtually the entire apparel industry is tainted” by such forced labor, and most fashion brands have been found to be profiting from this.
In December 2021, HRF launched the Uyghur Forced Labor Checker, a Google Chrome extension plug-in, to raise awareness about the intertwined relationship between the fashion industry and the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Chinese government. Based on the Coalition’s advocacy and research efforts, the plug-in generates a pop-up that informs consumers when they’re shopping from a brand that has not publicly committed to transparently mapping their entire supply chains and fully disengaging with Uyghur forced labor. With this Google Chrome plug-in, HRF hopes to engage consumers and encourage them to shop ethically, right at the point of purchase.
