Hitachi, save your face, drop the case

To: Hitachi

Dear Madam/Sir,

I learned from the GoodElectronics Network that your company has neglected to use the means at your disposal to make your supplier Asahi Kosei stop violating human rights. The rights or migrant workers set to work at Asahi’s facility in Selangor, Malaysia are trampled upon. Asahi Kosei has taken aggressive legal action against human rights defender Charles Hector.

GoodElectronics informed me that Hitachi also failed to enter into dialogue with labour rights organisations about this matter. This is of great concern to me.

According to your website, Hitachi brandishes its corporate social responsibility vision, speaking of “the building of a prosperous and vibrant society”, of “disclosing information openly and transparently in order to maintain and develop a relationship of trust with its various stakeholders, and acting responsibly towards them through various means of communication”, and about “undertaking business based on the principles of fairness and sincerity, acting with the utmost respect for human rights and pursuing a high sense of corporate ethics in the global business market which encompasses diverse cultures, morals, ethics, and legal systems”. Moreover, Hitachi is member of the EICC and has adopted the EICC code of conduct.

I expect Hitachi to live up to this stated commitment to human rights. I urge Hitachi to:

• use its leverage as customer of Asahi Kosei to immediately and unconditionally drop the legal case against Charles Hector;
• ensure that labour standards are upheld throughout the Hitachi supply chain;
• migrant workers ‘s rights are upheld and respected in Hitachi’s supply chain
• ensure justice is done to Thiha Soe and Aung San and the other affected workers;
• respect human rights defenders.

Save your face, drop the case!

Sincerely,