Date: Thursday, August 27, 2015 - 6:30pm
Location: Uzbek Embassy in the United States
1746 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington D.C.
The Uzbek government is throwing a fancy dinner at its Embassy in Washington, D.C., to showcase Uzbek food, culture and heritage to invited guests. We want to make sure party-goers also learn about the yearly ritual of forced labor that Uzbek citizens must endure at the hands of their own government. Please join us for a pre-party on the streets outside the embassy to speak out against forced labor in the Uzbek cotton harvest!
The government of Uzbekistan operates the largest state-orchestrated forced labor systems of cotton production in the world. Annually, the Uzbek authorities force farmers to grow cotton and more than a million school teachers, doctors, nurses and other citizens to harvest it, all under threat of punishment. Profits from cotton sales solely benefit the government elite, and the Uzbek government threatens, detains and assaults citizens who attempt to report this human rights abuse.
Call on the Government of Uzbekistan to stop its use of forced labor! For decades, the Uzbek authorities have claimed that cotton work is a national duty and an Uzbek tradition. Join us for the White Gold Pre-Party street action to inform guests about the Uzbek government's use of forced labor and to demand the end of this human rights crisis!
