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Frontline Defenders Condemn Attacks on Monitors of Forced Child Labour
Frontline Defenders, a UK-based human rights organization, has noted in its annual report that the problem of forced child labour continues in Uzbekistan:
In Uzbekistan, HRDs [human rights defenders] denouncing the use of forced child labour in the cotton fields were threatened, questioned and detained.
Among those facing repeated reprisals for her reporting was Elena Urlaeva.
Frontline has [...]
French Protesters Mark Karimov’s Birthday
Demonstrators in France turned out on January 30th, President Islam Karimov’s 74th birthday, to call attention to the dictator’s many human rights violations.
The activists picked the Uzbek Embassy in Paris, but embassy staff refused to accept their petition or meet with the protesters, says fergananews.com.
Among the protesters were members of the Association for Human Rights [...]
Speaking Cotton — A New Film on Forced Child Labour
A new film about forced child labour in the cotton industry in Uzbekistan was released in December.
Speaking Cotton, a film by Stefanie Trambow and Erik Malchow, portrays the ongoing exploitation of children in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields. In German and Russian, with English subtitles.
Kids Hard At Work In Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields
For years, Uzbek authorities have denied widespread reports that children are sent to the fields to pick cotton every harvest season.
Now viewers can see for themselves, thanks to video footage collected by human rights activists and sent to RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service. There is no denying that the school-age children in the video are picking cotton [...]
Time to Drive Child Labour From Value Chains
Patricia Jurewicz, director of the Responsible Sourcing Network, a project of As You Sow, has an op-ed piece at ethicalcorp.com, Time to Drive Child Labour From Value Chains:
During the recent International Cotton and Textile Fair in Tashkent, not a single western buyer signed a contract for Uzbekistan’s cotton, according to a report in the [...]
Clinics Empty as Medical Personnel Forced to Pick Cotton
An article about the decline of health care in Uzbekistan at EurasiaNet opens with an explanation for one of the devastating impacts on health care every year during the cotton season: all the medical personnel are forced out to the fields, leaving their clinics behind:
By the time Saidburkhan, a traditional healer from a small [...]
Authorities Threaten To Take Foster Child of Human Rights Activist
A human rights leader in Uzbekistan says she is suffering backlash for her work.
Police have come to the home of Elena Urlaeva of the Human Rights Alliance in Tashkent and attempted to remove her 7-year-old foster child, Muhammad, the independent website uznews.net reported.
The aim of the visit was quite simple: he [the policeman] said [...]
Actions, Not Words in Uzbekistan
Jeff Goldstein, a senior policy analyst at the Open Society Foundations, has a letter to the editor in The Washington Post critiquing the statement from a senior State Department official claiming that Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov wants to introduce democratic reforms.
The statement was made during a briefing for the press while Secretary of State Hillary [...]
UNICEF Confirms Uzbek Government Invitation to Observe Child Labour
UNICEF representatives have been officially invited to Uzbekistan to conduct monitoring of reports of the use of child labor, Radio Ozodlik reported.
Jean-Michel Delmotte, the representative of UNICEF in Tashkent, confirmed that the proposal had come from the government of Uzbekistan, the Russian news agency Regnum reported. Delmotte said that the Uzbek authorities promised [...]
Response from Assistant Secretary of State Blake to Activists Against Child Labour
A letter from Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake in reply to an appeal from human rights and labour activists September 27 was received, dated October 18:
Response to Sept 27 HR Ltr on Uzbekistan
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Download 2010 SOAS Report What Has Changed
The production and export of cotton continues to be a major feature of the economy, politics and everyday lives of the people of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This report analyses the nature and causes of their use of child labour in the cotton sector.