Guest blog: “No matter how many times you say the word ‘halva,’ it doesn’t get any sweeter in your mouth”: Hoja Nasreddin’s commentary on the new (no, really, NEW) Uzbek law against child labor

The hero of Sufi fables and humorous stories, Hoja Nasreddin embodies folk wisdom.  He would have appreciated the assiduous attempts by Uzbek bureaucrats to turn black into white, churning out another in a series of laws prohibiting child- and forced labor.  To date, Uzbekistan has signed and ratified the UN conventions on forced- and child labor, passed laws “On Guarantees of the Rights of the Child,”  “On Youth,” amended the labor code, all of which explicitly prohibit child labor.  In September 2008 the government issued a Decree on Implementing UN Conventions on the minimum age for labor, after which it adopted an Action [inaction?] Plan on the implementation of the decree on implementation.  Whew!

And yet, here is another law on the same subject, according to the reporting of Uzmetronom.com.  The legislature on November 3 adopted the law “On amendments to the Administrative Code,” which also concern the implementation of the Action [inaction] plan on the implementation of the ILO Convention on the Prohibition and Immediate Measures to Eradicate the Worst Forms of Child Labor, and the Convention on the Minimum Age of Employment.

And what, you might ask, has been the result of all this lawmaking?  Hoja Nasreddin, are you listening?  "No matter how many times you say the word ‘halva’…"