Report on the first month of the 2013 Cotton Harvest in Uzbekistan

The cotton harvest in Uzbekistan began in early September this and year  is expected to continue into November. Today, the Cotton Campaign released the Review of the first month of the 2013 Cotton Harvest in Uzbekistan, which presents reports from the first month of the harvest by Uzbek human rights monitors, media, and Uzbek citizens who have emailed their observations

So far, Uzbekistan’s state-order system of cotton production continues to be underpinned by forced labour on a large scale. The government continues to require farmers to produce cotton and to mobilize Uzbek children and adults in one of the largest state-sponsored systems of forced labour in the world.