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Farmers 2009: set us free and we won’t need children
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting has produced some of the most insightful discussions on this subject since 2004, exposing the reasons behind forced child labor on cotton. Their latest chronicle of the start of the 2009 harvest is based on interviews with several farmers who candidly discuss why they go along [...]
Eight of twelve provinces reporting so far: Tashkent region
Fergana.ru has posted a remarkable photo essay from the Iangiiul area cotton fields.
Read the article in English here.
It makes for sad reading, with twelve year olds afraid to speak to reporters in the fields due to their teachers and police nearby. Trying to pitch in alongside, the reporters left coughing [...]
New form of child labor on cotton: cultivating seedlings
Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe’s Uzbek service (Radio Ozodlik) reported a week or so ago that schoolchildren in some areas of the Fergana Valley were being sent home with paper cones and seeds and told to grow 200 seedlings in their gardens for cotton farmers to plant later in the season. Just a homework assignment, [...]
Children of cotton III: the parents
The Children of Cotton II
Uzbek activists provide new evidence: stunning footage
The France-based group of Uzbek exiles headed by Nadezhda Ataeva has brought out a three-part wrenching visual account of the cost that cotton wreaks on Uzbek families.
U.S. Senate considers resolution condemning child labor in Uzbek cotton
On April 2, Senator Tom Harkin (Democrat of Iowa) submitted a “sense of the Senate” resolution. The action point:
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the Government of Uzbekistan should–
(1) immediately enforce its existing domestic legislation and fulfill its international commitments aimed at ending state-sponsored forced and child labor;
(2) allow a comprehensive independent [...]
Traceability a reality
The UK’s The Guardian reports on an upcoming conference by the Ethical Trade Initiative and sponsored by Tesco, the major UK retailer which was the first to boycott Uzbek cotton: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/24/retail-ethicalbusiness
Tesco has been a pioneer in policing its supply chain to ensure that there is no Uzbek cotton in it.
Twelve-year olds and up out weeding now: Khorezm
http://www.ozodlik.org/content/article/1734915.html
Starting on May 17, children in the Khorezm province’s Yangibozor district have been sent out to weed and work in the cotton fields. The district’s schoolchildren from 6th to 9th grades (12-15 years old) are taking part. Presumably this means lycee level high school students are also out. One sixth grade girl interviewed in the [...]
More evidence from the field: exploitation worse in 2008
Freedom House is distributing a report compiled by a group of Uzbekistani human rights defenders reviewing the country’s human rights record in the last year. Disturbingly, the authors elected to remain anonymous so as not to risk repercussions. The climate for honest reporting and analysis continues to worsen, evidently.
The report’s main conclusion: the government [...]
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REPORTS
Download 2010 SOAS Report What Has Changed
The production and export of cotton continues to be a major feature of the economy, politics and everyday lives of the people of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This report analyses the nature and causes of their use of child labour in the cotton sector.