Home
Log-in
Grieve…and then give
Readers will forgive, I hope, the non cotton-related nature of this post. No one with even a passing interest in Central Asia could fail to be devastated by the Rwanda-like violence meted out against ethnic Uzbek citizens in southern Kyrgyzstan, by their own compatriots. Reports by newswires, by Fergana.ru, local human rights defenders, by international groups on the ground such as Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group indicate that the pogroms of the week-end have not wholly abated. Uzbeks continue to face threats, and to be denied medical care and humanitarian assistance on the basis of their ethnicity.
There are some few organizations on the ground distributing aid directly, and if you are able to, I hope you will support their efforts. One is Save the Children, which is beginning to disburse aid to suffering families as we speak: see their announcement here. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which has been providing shelter and other assistance to refugees in Uzbekistan (and maybe on the border?) has its appeal page here (the donation page does not yet allow funds to be targeted for the Kyrgyzstan emergency, but I hope they will soon change that).
Gearing up for the International Day Against Child labor June 12
The International Labor Rights Forum is planning a May 25 conference in Washington D.C. to discuss the state of the struggle. Representatives from the AFL/CIO, from Coca Cola, and from the State Department’s office of Child Labor and Trafficking will present.
Given that the ILO’s latest report on child labor shows that reductions observed between 2004-2008 have slowed way down in the past two years, it’s time to renew strategies and take stock. For those who can’t make it, streaming video of the event will be available here.
Spanish soccer and Uzbek cotton
For the money-hungry and ambitious, trading a bit of their status by associating with the Uzbek dictatorship in return for some hard cash may seem like a good deal (exhibit A: Sting). Exhibit B comes this week courtesy of the Spanish daily of record El Pais: Joan Laporta, president of the renowned Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona, seems to have signed a deal linking the team with Uzbekistan’s leading soccer club, Bunyodkor. Bunyodkor happens to be controlled by Zeromax, that many-tentacled vehicle for extraction of wealth said to be controlled by Gulnora Karimova, pithily described by the paper as “self-proclaimed ‘Princess of Uzbeks’, a woman with an extraordinarily broad curriculum. Parlty Princess Diana, Sarah Palin part, part Bond girl, part Cruella de Vil”[translation: google].
Zeromax, or Bunyodkor is reported to have funneled at least 8 million euros into the Barcelona club, which is also sponsored by, ahem, UNICEF. Conflict of interest, maybe? Since El Pais has emphasized that “what distinguishes Uzbekistan is the systematic abuse of children, millions of which have been forced into slave labor in cotton harvesting,” maybe the team’s Spanish fans and sponsors will feel that its standing of champion of human, and especially children’s rights is not what it used to be. The beautiful game, indeed.
Tell Sting: the Uzbek people want their money back
I could hardly believe this story that Eurasianet broke back in September of last year, about Sting’s plan to give a concert for the Uzbek elite at the behest of Gulnora Karimova, daughter of dictator Islam Karimov. Tickets for $1,000? Nice, in a country with a minimum monthly wage of less than $20, and from a performer who styles himself as a champion of human rights. Then in February this year the UK Guardian came out with the news that the guy pocketed between $1 and $2 million US for the show, claiming he thought it had been sponsored by UNICEF. Right.
Since Gulnora is linked to the holding company Zeromax, which boasts thousands of acres planted under cotton, Sting’s dirty money is likely to have been in part wrung out of the exhausted land by the tired little hands of Uzbek school-kids. Though to be 100% fair, Zeromax denies that it uses child labor to harvest its cotton (but this deserves a post of its own).
Everyone has a chance to let Sting know what they think of his moneymaking venture via this petition, asking him to sign over his profits from the show to the cause of Uzbek human rights.
Stunning footage from the Uzbek-German Forum
Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights: 2009 cotton harvest
Beyond documentation of the youth and vulnerability of those exploited this past year, this footage shows so clearly what miserable work children are forced to do. You can hear in the audio the sounds of the pods and branches scratching their hands and tearing at their clothes.
Tags: Uzbek human rights groups > Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights > you tube
UN Secretary General to Uzbekistan: stop forced child labor
Reuters and the New York Times are both reporting that the UN SG made a big push on human rights on his regional trip, with special emphasis on the issue in Uzbekistan. The Secretary General was also reportedly very moved by his flight over the Aral Sea, an ecological disaster directly traceable to the cotton monoculture that persists in Uzbekistan to this day. Tension between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over the planned Rogun hydroelectric dam, which Uzbekistan fears would limit water to irrigate its fields in summer, took up some of the SG’s attention.
Though we focus on the moral horror of children exploited by their own government, Ban Ki Moon’s visit to the region points to other troubling issues exacerbated by cotton, a system perpetuated by the cost savings created by children’s toil.
Bald faced lies
It’s going to be hard for international organizations to claim that Uzbekistan is making any progress on the issue of forced child labor in agriculture when the government continues to bluntly, vociferously deny reality.
The Expert Working Group, a collection of young human rights activists in the country, participated in the 98th session of the UN Human Rights Committee in New York, and has just posted this account of the review session on 11-12 March. Akmal Saidov, the government’s representative and head of the “National Human Rights Institute” (at one time created and richly funded by the UNDP, btw) had this to say (my translation from the Russian):
Assertions that forced child labor is used to harvest cotton have no basis in fact… Read more
Called to account, Uzbekistan pleads, “But we’re working with UNICEF!”
Tomorrow and Friday, the UN body that reviews states’ adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, will consider Uzbekistan’s latest (third) regular report.
Previous reviews have highlighted the issue of forced child labor, and in fact this year’s list of questions that the committee submits to the government ahead of the review specifically asks:
17.1. Please provide information on the effectiveness of the steps taken by the State party to enforce the legal provisions (Rights of the Child [Safeguards] Act of 2008) aimed at eradicating child labor, including very young children e.g. in the cotton industry (previous concluding observations, para. 25). Read more
Anti-Slavery International calls on H&M and Zara to cut out Uzbek cotton
See the group’s call to action here, and here.
World Bank in Uzbekistan: excusing child exploitation?
A modest proposal: if international organizations feel incapable of speaking out against Uzbekistan’s state-sponsored child exploitation (can’t damage that all-important mandate, can we?), at the very least they should be able to avoid promoting it. Can we agree?
Unfortunately this seems like too much to ask. The World Bank has decided to devote this year’s small grants program, intended to develop Uzbek NGOs, to the topic of ”creating conditions for upbringing healthy and harmoniously developed generation, and realization of the young people’s creative and intellectual potential”–yes, the government’s own propaganda theme for 2010, expressly intended to obscure its annual mass child mobilization. The deadline for the competition is next week, so it will be interesting to see what projects are actually funded. Read more
keep looking »About
Cotton Campaign RSS Feeds