Apple Shareholders Asked To Vote For Corporate Policy On Operating Where Homosexuality Is Illegal

Via press release:

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.

Apple has denounced the request as “unnecessary.” See below.opp7