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Gearing up for the International Day Against Child labor June 12
The International Labor Rights Forum is planning a May 25 conference in Washington D.C. to discuss the state of the struggle. Representatives from the AFL/CIO, from Coca Cola, and from the State Department’s office of Child Labor and Trafficking will present.
Given that the ILO’s latest report on child labor shows that reductions observed [...]
Spanish soccer and Uzbek cotton
For the money-hungry and ambitious, trading a bit of their status by associating with the Uzbek dictatorship in return for some hard cash may seem like a good deal (exhibit A: Sting). Exhibit B comes this week courtesy of the Spanish daily of record El Pais: Joan Laporta, president of the renowned Spanish soccer team [...]
UN Secretary General to Uzbekistan: stop forced child labor
Reuters and the New York Times are both reporting that the UN SG made a big push on human rights on his regional trip, with special emphasis on the issue in Uzbekistan. The Secretary General was also reportedly very moved by his flight over the Aral Sea, an ecological disaster directly traceable to the cotton [...]
Bald faced lies
It’s going to be hard for international organizations to claim that Uzbekistan is making any progress on the issue of forced child labor in agriculture when the government continues to bluntly, vociferously deny reality.
The Expert Working Group, a collection of young human rights activists in the country, participated in the 98th session of the UN [...]
Called to account, Uzbekistan pleads, “But we’re working with UNICEF!”
Tomorrow and Friday, the UN body that reviews states’ adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, will consider Uzbekistan’s latest (third) regular report.
Previous reviews have highlighted the issue of forced child labor, and in fact this year’s list of questions that the committee submits to the government ahead of the review specifically [...]
World Bank in Uzbekistan: excusing child exploitation?
A modest proposal: if international organizations feel incapable of speaking out against Uzbekistan’s state-sponsored child exploitation (can’t damage that all-important mandate, can we?), at the very least they should be able to avoid promoting it. Can we agree?
Unfortunately this seems like too much to ask. The World Bank has decided to devote this year’s small [...]
Asian Development Bank: “We intend to expand cooperation with Uzbekistan.”
The thickest thread in the interlocking economic web that keeps child slavery in place is of course the international cotton purchasers that allow the regime to profit from exploitation. But international development banks have a not-insignificant role too, considering they provide loans for agricultural projects, technical assistance, and, critically, political cover for this appalling [...]
The UN Child’s Rights Convention is 20 years old (and Uzbek children are still out picking cotton)
It’s a trite formula for a story: note an anniversary of a worthy treaty/announcement/international agreement, then express regret that in spite of some laudable progress, look how far there is yet to go, throwing in a tear-jerking example or two. This past week, the 20th anniversary of the signing of the UN Convention on the [...]
International Day against Child Labor event, Geneva
NGOs, business and trade union representatives will gather on June 11 in Geneva, the day before the International Day against Child Labor, to talk about ways to halt Uzbekistan’s massive annual exploitation of its children. See the program below (with RSVP contact for all those who can attend).
The session will come at the beginning [...]
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