Press Release from the National Center for Public Policy Research:
Cupertino, CA / Washington, D.C. – At today’s Apple shareholder meeting in Cupertino, California, shareholders will vote on a resolution submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a shareholder, requiring Apple’s management to prepare a report identifying Apple’s criteria for operating in regions with significant human rights violations.
Apple operates in 17 nations in which homosexual activity is illegal. In four of those, it is punishable by death. Women have almost no rights in numerous countries in which Apple does business. A female could not even drive a shipment of iPhones to Apple’s sales location in Saudi Arabia, or work there without a male’s permission.
Apple CEO Tim Cook emerged as a civil rights activist in the spring of 2015, writing an op-ed in the Washington Post, saying he did so, on Apple’s behalf, in “the hopes that many more will join this movement” against discrimination.
“At Apple,” Cook added, “we are in business to empower and enrich our customers’ lives. We strive to do business in a way that is just and fair. “
The National Center for Public Policy Research proposal takes Mr. Cook seriously by asking Apple’s management to issue a report to shareholders on the company’s business operations in regions with systemic human rights violations.
As Mr. Cook himself wrote, “Opposing discrimination takes courage. With the lives and dignity of so many people at stake, it’s time for all of us to be courageous.”
The National Center for Public Policy Research asks all Apple shareholders to vote for proposal #7.
For more information about this shareholder proposal, including Apple’s efforts to fight it before for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, please read our February 23 press release.
To read the full text of the National Center’s shareholder proposal, download Apple’s proxy statement here and go to page 62. Apple’s statement of opposition to our anti-discrimination proposal, which concludes, “the requested report is unnecessary and would not provide meaningful information to shareholders,” can be found on page 63.
