Textile Exchange Position on Human Rights

Textile Exchange collects fiber production data and reports it as an industry resource. As “organic” is a legally controlled term around the world, we use the criteria established by those governing authorities as to whether it is certified as “organic” regardless of other sustainability issues involved. In this way, Textile Exchange is agnostic in its volume reporting. Because China, and Xinjiang in particular, is a key producing region for organic cotton, we continue to report production within our Organic Cotton Market Reports (OCMR) – including the volumes produced in Xinjiang. However, we believe it is important that our members understand the current situation in Xinjiang so that they can make informed choices about their sourcing strategies.

Textile Exchange reports data within our OCMR on certified organic cotton production that has been submitted to us, analyzed, and cross-referenced in accordance with our methodology. We include the data received from every producing country in the Organic Cotton Market Report to create a complete picture of the global supply. Textile Exchange does not perform certification work itself, provide on-the-ground program work regarding the production of organic cotton or any other fiber in any country, nor make recommendations for preferred sourcing locations.

Textile Exchange owns the Organic Content Standard (OCS) which is applied at the first processing stage through to the final product. The OCS accepts any organically grown material from farms certified to national organic standards within the IFOAM Family of Standards and through its chain of custody, ensures the integrity of the material claim in the final product.  

Textile Exchange sets social requirements for all Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certified sites, as well as Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) farms and Responsible Mohair Standard (RMS) farms. For the rest of the standards and sites where social requirements are out of scope, Textile Exchange has taken the following actions in 2020:

1. Textile Exchange updated The Content Claim Standard (CCS) Certification Procedures (released June 1, 2020 and effective September 1, 2020) to include a new allowance for certification bodies to take action should they witness unacceptable practices.

“The certification body should issue a critical non-conformity to any organization or site where evidence suggests that any of the following practices (collectively, the unacceptable practices) are occurring:

• The worst forms of child labor, as defined by ILO C182 – Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182); or

• Forced labor, as defined by ILO C029 – Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29).

This is currently treated as a recommendation and is not required to be audited against. The discussion of whether this becomes a mandatory auditing requirement will be addressed with the CCS International Working Group.”

2.   In October, the List of Banned Organizations was updated to prevent companies that have been sanctioned by the U.S. government – including entities that are high risk for forced labor – from becoming certified with the following language:

“No entity with which the United States government has limited or prohibited certain economic or trade activities (such entity, a “restricted entity”), including but not limited to any entity listed in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/office-of-foreign-assets-control-sanctions-programs-and-information) or subject to any enforcement action under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1307) (prohibiting the importation of merchandise produced by forced or indentured labor), shall be eligible for certification to any Textile Exchange standard. In the event that a certified party is identified as a restricted entity, the certification body shall immediately notify Textile Exchange and withdraw the certification of such restricted entity.”

3. Textile Exchange now allows the raw material’s “country/region of origin” to be included on all transaction certificates. Again, before this becomes mandatory for all materials on all transaction certificates, a required review and feedback period are required, but it is expected to become mandatory with an updated certificate policy and template in 2021. When this information is carried forward on all transaction certificates, it would allow companies to make sourcing decisions of their own that may be out of the scope of Textile Exchange standards. To join this revision process, contact us.

Apart from standards work, Textile Exchange exists to be a source of guidance and collective action to solve problems in the textile industry and therefore will continue to provide value through educational events and materials.