[...] Immediately after the publication of the report by Coffee Watch and China Labor Watch, 4C issued a public statement in December 2024, available here: 4C Reaffirms Commitment to Ethical Labour Practices.

Following this, 4C has initiated a dialogue with Coffee Watch and China Labor Watch to gather additional details to support 4C’s integrity measures which have been started immediately after becoming aware of the allegations.

The 4C Integrity Program is designed to verify the compliance of 4C certificate holders with 4C requirements in order to safeguard the robustness, credibility, and continuous improvement of the 4C Certification System. 4C Integrity audits are conducted by 4C and are, therefore, an independent addition to internal audits performed by the certificate holders (Managing Entities) and external audits conducted by Certification Bodies. In case of critical non-conformities, the 4C certificate will be withdrawn. More information on the 4C Integrity Program can be found here: 4C Integrity Program.

In the context of the 4C Integrity Program, the following measures have been taken:

(1) Thorough analysis of the report findings regarding 4C requirements and the local laws

and regulations.

(2) Unannounced audit of system users by the independent Certification Body.

(3) Internal investigations with relevant Certification Bodies to assess previous audit findings.

(4) Integrity audit of the respective Certification Body in China to further evaluate auditors’

competence and to investigate common practices regarding labour rights protection and

their implementation.

Additional witness and integrity assessments are scheduled for the forthcoming months.

Efforts so far confirmed that the auditors of cooperating Certification Bodies in China have been regularly trained on human rights and labour issues. The respective Certification Body is continuously accredited against ISO/IEC 17065 and other ISO standards that are required to cooperate with 4C. The respective Certification Body has implemented improvement actions to strengthen the performance of the auditors and ensure the consistent application of the 4C System. Further improvement activities have been agreed and will be implemented by November 2025.

Recognising the critical risk of social issues, 4C is leading the project ‘Fostering Social Auditing: Enhancing Issue Detection and Risk Identification through Responsive and Context-Specific Approaches’. This project includes reviewing common/experienced challenges associated with the identification and follow-up of social issues before, during, and after the audits, as well as good practices to detect and remediate human rights violations at farm level. With the support and input of its project partners and stakeholders involved (Managing Entities, CBs, producers, other ISEAL members) the project has developed a capacity building program for auditors and companies to enhance internal and external social audits. The project is made by the ISEAL Innovations Fund, which is supported by SECO and the UK Development.

4C remains committed to transparency and accountability and will continue to strengthen its system to counteract risks and uphold high labour standards. 4C welcomes constructive engagement with all stakeholders in a shared effort to improve conditions in the coffee sector.