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New form of child labor on cotton: cultivating seedlings
Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe’s Uzbek service (Radio Ozodlik) reported a week or so ago that schoolchildren in some areas of the Fergana Valley were being sent home with paper cones and seeds and told to grow 200 seedlings in their gardens for cotton farmers to plant later in the season. Just a homework assignment, [...]
Children of cotton III: the parents
The Children of Cotton II
Uzbek activists provide new evidence: stunning footage
The France-based group of Uzbek exiles headed by Nadezhda Ataeva has brought out a three-part wrenching visual account of the cost that cotton wreaks on Uzbek families.
U.S. Senate considers resolution condemning child labor in Uzbek cotton
On April 2, Senator Tom Harkin (Democrat of Iowa) submitted a “sense of the Senate” resolution. The action point:
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the Government of Uzbekistan should–
(1) immediately enforce its existing domestic legislation and fulfill its international commitments aimed at ending state-sponsored forced and child labor;
(2) allow a comprehensive independent [...]
Traceability a reality
The UK’s The Guardian reports on an upcoming conference by the Ethical Trade Initiative and sponsored by Tesco, the major UK retailer which was the first to boycott Uzbek cotton: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/24/retail-ethicalbusiness
Tesco has been a pioneer in policing its supply chain to ensure that there is no Uzbek cotton in it.
Companies that get it: the Gap
This site will spotlight the growing handful of companies worldwide that reject the use of cotton produced with forced child labor in Uzbekistan. Thankfully for my family’s buying habits, this includes the Gap, which states on its website:
Cotton from Uzbekistan
Under no circumstances is it acceptable for child labor to be used in the production of [...]
Twelve-year olds and up out weeding now: Khorezm
http://www.ozodlik.org/content/article/1734915.html
Starting on May 17, children in the Khorezm province’s Yangibozor district have been sent out to weed and work in the cotton fields. The district’s schoolchildren from 6th to 9th grades (12-15 years old) are taking part. Presumably this means lycee level high school students are also out. One sixth grade girl interviewed in the [...]
More evidence from the field: exploitation worse in 2008
Freedom House is distributing a report compiled by a group of Uzbekistani human rights defenders reviewing the country’s human rights record in the last year. Disturbingly, the authors elected to remain anonymous so as not to risk repercussions. The climate for honest reporting and analysis continues to worsen, evidently.
The report’s main conclusion: the government [...]
What not to wear–antislavery edition
Why is the UK historically so out in front on social justice issues? From the anti-slavery crusade, to anti-vivisectionists, and now for ethical consumption. Bad conscience, maybe?
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