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Uzbek Cotton Fair Nets $550 Million In Sales
Uzbekistan is reporting sales of some $550 million worth of cotton and textiles at the two-day International Cotton and Textile Fair held in Tashkent, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.
Some 330 companies from 38 countries reportedly sent representatives to the fair and those representatives bought a reported 600,000 tons of Uzbek cotton and [...]
Uzbek Farmer Commits Suicide After Failing to Meet State Quota
On September 14, a funeral was held for a farmer from Murzrabot district in the Surkhandarya region, who committed suicide, the Uzbek Service of the BBC reported.
According to accounts from other farmers and villagers, Ismail Turanazarov, age 50, had been reprimanded at a meeting in Murzrabot about the cotton harvest by the head of [...]
Students Go to Fields Along with Teachers
Not long after teachers were forced to go to the cotton fields in Uzbekistan to help bring in the harvest, their pupils from middle schools followed them.
The BBC Uzbek Service has received reports that children in the 6th grade who are 12 years of age have been forced to work in large numbers in the [...]
Uzbekistan Holds Cotton Fair Despite Ongoing Boycott
Uzbekistan has opened its seventh International Cotton and Textile Fair in Tashkent with some 330 companies from 38 countries sending representatives, even as others boycott the event, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reported.
The event’s website said that the “primary goal of such an endeavor is to further expand long-term cooperation with international organizations [...]
School-Children Forced to Pick Cotton in Andijan Region; Potemkin Fields for President
Authorities have begun to mobilize school-children in Andijan province for the cotton harvest, the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights reports.
Starting October 6, children from Uzbekistan’s most densely-populated province of Andijan were taken to pick cotton. Earlier, local administrators (the khokimiyat) had stated that this year, they would not force middle-school children to take part [...]
Uzbek Monitor Reports from the Cotton Fields: “Everyone to the Harvest”
A monitor working with the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights sent an account of his recent drive across Uzbekistan through the provinces, risking arrest to take pictures of school-children working in the cotton fields. He describes the empty marketplaces, with everyone sent off to the cotton fields, the dusty, bumpy roads, the children laboring in [...]
Uzbek Children Told to Buy Their Way Out of Cotton Harvest
The independent news site uznews.net reports that children are being offered a way to buy themselves out of the cotton harvest.
In the Yukkorichirchick district of Tashkent region, the authorities have informed parents that their young children will be excused from cotton harvesting duties if parents hand over payment of 20,000 soums (around US$8.00).
“People in my [...]
Uzbek Activists Detained Photographing Child Cotton Pickers
Two Uzbek rights activists say they were detained by police for taking pictures of schoolchildren picking cotton in the southern Kashkadarya region, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.
Gulshan Karayeva and Nodor Ahatov, members of an unregistered Uzbekistan’s Human Rights society, were held by local authorities for 10 hours on September 15 while taking the photos.
“We saw the [...]
Plea for Help from Uzbek Med Students Forced to Pick Cotton
Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek Service of Radio Europe/Radio Liberty, has received an urgent plea from students forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan.
A student at the Faculty of Pediatrics at the Andijan Medical Institute, who gave only his first name, Abdumalilik, writes:
We need help, we are being tormented by fascistic methods. We are taken out to [...]
Uzbek Students Used As Forced Labor During Cotton Harvest
Radio Ozodlik, the Uzbek Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has a news story about students forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan.
Some students from the medical school in Andijon have told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that they are being forced to work in cotton fields under draconian conditions.
The students said they are allowed only [...]
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REPORTS
Download 2012 CEGG Report Forced Child Labour in Uzbekistan
The state-controlled forced labor system of cotton production in Uzbekistan continues to violate the human rights of Uzbek children and adults in order to support the central government with revenues from cotton exports. This report identifies alarming trends of the most recent harvests, including the increased tendencies of civil servants forced to pick cotton and children forced to work the most difficult and dangerous end of the harvest. The report calls for an ILO monitoring mission and action from the governments of the European Union and the U.S., the World Bank, and the private sector to stop forced labor in the cotton sector of Uzbekistan.