Cotton Campaign
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Uzbekistan's Forced Labor Problem >
      • Reports
      • Chronicle of Forced Labor
      • Photos/Video
      • FAQs
    • Turkmenistan's Forced Labor Problem >
      • Reports of Forced Labor in Turkmenistan's Cotton Sector
    • Forced Labor Cotton in Other Countries
    • Contact
  • Countries
    • Turkmenistan
    • Uzbekistan
    • Governments >
      • What other governments can do
    • International Organizations >
      • What the World Bank and Asian Development Bank can do
      • What the International Labor Organization can do
    • Companies >
      • What companies operating in Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan can do
      • What companies that use cotton can do
      • What investors can do
  • Take Action
  • Media
    • Press Releases
    • News
    • Videos
  • Blog

Blog

Plea for Fair Cotton Harvest

1/6/2014

0 Comments

 
This post originally appeared as a Letter to the Editor of The New York Times on January 2, 2014:

“In Uzbekistan, the Practice of Forced Labor Lives On During the Cotton Harvest” (news article, Dec. 18) exposes the Uzbek government’s systematic use of forced labor to grow and harvest cotton. The recent successful efforts by the Cotton Campaign to press the Uzbek government to curtail the use of young children in the forced-labor scheme should be celebrated. Yet it is alarming to read that again this year, the government continued to brazenly force Uzbek farming families to grow cotton, force older children and adults to pick the cotton, punish anyone who refused to follow orders and detain human rights defenders and journalists attempting to report the crimes to the outside world.

Unfortunately, with Uzbekistan among the world’s largest producers of cotton, we can expect that store shelves in the United States and Europe will continue to be stocked with apparel that contains cotton from forced labor until the Obama administration and governments around the world take serious steps to hold accountable Uzbek government officials and companies like Daewoo International that profit from the government’s forced-labor scheme.

BRIAN CAMPBELL
Washington, Dec. 19, 2013

The writer is director of policy and legal programs for the International Labor Rights Forum.

0 Comments

Truthfully “Why was a container with 22 tons of Uzbek yarn detained in the United States”?

1/3/2014

0 Comments

 
This week, in the article (original / English translation) “Why was a container with 22 tons of Uzbek yarn detained in the United States,” the Uzbek state media outlet 12Uz complained that the U.S. Customs Service prevented a shipment of yarn produced in Uzbekistan by the South Korean company Indorama from entering the port of Los Angeles. While the article makes wildly inaccurate allegations about the Cotton Campaign, it fails to mention the two words that would answer its own question: forced labor.

In 2013, the Uzbek government again systematically forced children and adults to pick cotton and farmers to produce state-established quotas of cotton in one of the largest state-sponsored systems of forced labor in the world. Authorities penalized those who refused to participate in cotton production, and penalties included fines, expulsion from school, job loss, denial of public benefits, and even physical violence.

The Uz12 article ignores two key related points: First, forced labor is illegal under Uzbek law; second, importing goods made with forced labor is illegal under U.S. law. The U.S. Tariff Act of 1930 requires the U.S. Customs Service to deny entry to goods that arrive at U.S. ports that contain materials made with forced labor. This trade regulation rewards countries that take their obligation to protect human rights seriously and supports companies that respect human rights throughout their operations and supply chains.

Therefore, the U.S. Customs Service is to be commended for holding shipments of products with forced-labor produced cotton from Uzbekistan, and Indorama Kokand Textiles should change practice from ignoring to fulfilling its human rights due diligence responsibilities.

Already, there is broad acknowledgement of the problems of forced labor in the production of cotton in Uzbekistan and distribution of the tainted product to retailers worldwide, following its processing into apparel and other consumer items in China, Bangladesh and elsewhere. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) National Contact Point of France determined in a case against European traders dealing in Uzbek cotton that trading in goods produced from forced child labor constitutes a flagrant violation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Nearly 140 companies from around the world have pledged not to source cotton from Uzbekistan due to continued forced labor of children and adults. Nike, H&M, Ikea and other companies pushed Daewoo International out of their supply chains in protest against the South Korean company’s support for the forced labor system, as the largest cotton manufacturer in Uzbekistan. Indorama should take note, stop buying Uzbek cotton until there is no forced labor in its production, and establish independent human rights monitoring of its operations and supply chain.

The Uzbek government should also take a lesson from the seizure of Indorama’s shipment and understand that continued refusal to end forced labor impedes trade and investment. Importantly, the Uzbek government began working with the International Labour Organization (ILO), with a monitoring exercise during the 2013 cotton harvest. As previously reported, that exercise was unfortunately limited only to child labor, and Uzbek authorities took extensive measures to conceal forced labor, including returning children to school in anticipation of inspections and instructing people to lie to the monitors. The 12Uz article notes that the ILO monitoring mission found there was no systematic recourse to child labor in the 2014 harvest, but the article ignores the key ILO findings that there was child labor, that those instances were related to the state-order system of cotton production, and that effective implementation of the convention prohibiting forced labor remains a concern. The question now is whether the Uzbek government will commit to reform and deepen its work with the ILO to apply all fundamental labor conventions.

Finally, regarding our campaign, as a coalition of human rights NGOs, labor unions, socially responsible investors, and business associations, our goal remains ending forced labor in cotton production. Our coalition participants have no ties to the cotton industry. To state otherwise is false and distracting from the serious human rights situation in Uzbekistan. Together, we the Cotton Campaign urge the government of Uzbekistan to eliminate forced labor in its cotton sector by taking the following steps:

  1. Acknowledge the problem of forced labor in the cotton sector and commit to time-bound actions to end the practice;
  2. Investigate and hold accountable under legal due process all officials found to have violated national law by mobilizing forced labour during the 2013 harvest;
  3. Allow ILO monitors full access to examine forced labor during the 2014 harvest, with selection of monitors and oversight by the International Organization of Employees (IOE) and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), participation of Uzbek civil society, and public reporting;
  4. Work with the ILO and other United Nations agencies to reform the agricultural sector by abolishing compulsory cotton production quotas and both enabling and promoting hired labor in conditions respecting fundamental rights at work;
  5. Document the impact of measures to prohibit forced labor and report progress to the ILO; and
  6. End repression of journalists and human rights activists.
0 Comments

    Archives

    February 2020
    January 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    November 2007

    Categories

    All

CONTACT: Cotton Campaign Coordinator - c/o International Labor Rights Forum, 1634 I Street NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20006. 
+1 202-347-4100, cottoncampaigncoordinator [at] gmail.com
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Uzbekistan's Forced Labor Problem >
      • Reports
      • Chronicle of Forced Labor
      • Photos/Video
      • FAQs
    • Turkmenistan's Forced Labor Problem >
      • Reports of Forced Labor in Turkmenistan's Cotton Sector
    • Forced Labor Cotton in Other Countries
    • Contact
  • Countries
    • Turkmenistan
    • Uzbekistan
    • Governments >
      • What other governments can do
    • International Organizations >
      • What the World Bank and Asian Development Bank can do
      • What the International Labor Organization can do
    • Companies >
      • What companies operating in Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan can do
      • What companies that use cotton can do
      • What investors can do
  • Take Action
  • Media
    • Press Releases
    • News
    • Videos
  • Blog