EU Special Representative for Central Asia: Urge the Uzbek government to invite the ILO to monitor the cotton harvest

Posted on July 25, 2012 by | No Comments

Today, the Cotton Campaign called on Patricia Flor, EU Special Representative for Central Asia, to urge the government of Uzbekistan to invite the International Labour Organisation to conduct unfettered monitoring of the cotton harvest this autumn. The letter is available here. Following on from President Barroso’s discussions with President Karimov on this issue in January [...]

Teachers in Uzbekistan: Deprived of their Profession / Forced to be Cotton Growers

Posted on July 23, 2012 by | No Comments

Uzbekistan is the only country in the world where the government shuts educational institutions for 2-3 months and send students and school children to pick cotton. The cotton industry of Uzbekistan is built on forced labour, and the most convenient objects of forced cotton harvest are schools. During cotton season, you can see propaganda posters [...]

US: Condition Support for the Government of Uzbekistan on Ending Forced Labor

Posted on July 10, 2012 by | No Comments

“The bloodiest massacre of protesters since Tianamen Square turned Uzbekistan into a pariah state…” “Uzbekistan has been run with unflinching severity by 74-year-old former Soviet party boss Islam Karimov since before the country gained independence in 1991…” “…government troops indiscriminately gunned down hundreds of protesters in the eastern city of Andijan in 2005.” “With access [...]

“Can You Feel the Sadness in Your Clothes?”

Posted on July 2, 2012 by | No Comments

Young students of Garston asked a national forum at Oxford University, “Can you feel the sadness in your clothes?” on June 26. The students’ participated in workshops by Anti-Slavery International last year and since developed their own “Cut Cotton Crimes” campaign. The students’ informed and outraged presentation highlighted the problem of international complicity in the [...]