The Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI), a joint initiative of Solar Power Europe and Solar Energy UK driving a more responsible, transparent, and sustainable solar value chain, fails its members and the wider solar industry by remaining silent on Uyghur forced labour, the most pervasive and severe human rights risk in the solar sector.

The SSI should provide clear and unequivocal guidance to its members that in state-imposed forced labour contexts, like the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region), ending business relationships is the only responsible course of action. Further, ‘certification’ against the SSI Standards should not be considered as reliable evidence of compliance with forced labour regulations, the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region says.

Every level of the solar panel supply chain is exposed to Uyghur forced labour. Recent research confirms that the solar industry remains highly reliant on the Uyghur Region for key inputs, where state-imposed forced labour is an integral element of a government-imposed system of oppression against the Uyghur population. Abuses in the Uyghur Region may constitute crimes against humanity according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The SSI’s silence on the industry’s continued reliance on state-imposed forced labour severely undermines the credibility and effectiveness of the initiative, which portrays itself as an industry standard to create a more sustainable solar supply chain.