Home
Log-in
Activist Urges Uzbek Officials to Comply with Anti-Forced Labour Law
Dmitry Tikhonov, a human rights defender in the city of Angren, has appealed to Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov to stop breaking the law and end the exploitation of children in the cotton harvest, the independent website uznews.net reported.
“I addressed my demands to Rustam Azimov because he is personally responsible for overseeing the implementation of [...]
Clinics Empty as Medical Personnel Forced to Pick Cotton
An article about the decline of health care in Uzbekistan at EurasiaNet opens with an explanation for one of the devastating impacts on health care every year during the cotton season: all the medical personnel are forced out to the fields, leaving their clinics behind:
By the time Saidburkhan, a traditional healer from a small [...]
UNICEF Confirms Uzbek Government Invitation to Observe Child Labour
UNICEF representatives have been officially invited to Uzbekistan to conduct monitoring of reports of the use of child labor, Radio Ozodlik reported.
Jean-Michel Delmotte, the representative of UNICEF in Tashkent, confirmed that the proposal had come from the government of Uzbekistan, the Russian news agency Regnum reported. Delmotte said that the Uzbek authorities promised [...]
How Many Children Are Working in the Cotton Fields in Uzbekistan?
Organizations working in the campaign against forced child labour have estimated the number of children working in the cotton fields to be from 1.5 million to 2 million. These estimates were made on the basis of extrapolation of numbers based on surveys of limited areas. Recently, two new sources became available which help confirm [...]
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 [...]
Tashkent’s Cotton Fair Opens: Do Boycotts Work?
Tashkent’s 6th international cotton and textile fair opened this week, and Uzbekistan’s state media trumpeted the event, initiated by President Islam Karimov, as a triumph of the national economy and the dictator’s “Uzbek model of reform” practiced for the last 20 years since independence.
Once again, the government web site gov.uz trotted out figures [...]
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 [...]
Activists Oppose “Business as Usual”; Picket Uzbek-US Forum
Twenty organizations today signed a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the US government not to resume “business as usual” with Uzbekistan due to persistent and serious human rights problems such as torture and forced child labor.
The groups included human rights organizations Amnesty International USA, the Berlin-based European Center for [...]
Be Not Afraid of Growing Slowly, Just of Activists Seeing Your Agenda
Last week, the American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce boasted on its website that it was upgrading its annual American-Uzbek Business Forum in light of positive developments in bilateral relations:
Due to the positive developments during the recent Annual Bilateral Consultations between the Governments of the United States of America and the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek Government [...]
Cotton Campaign RSS Feeds
Follow Us On Twitter
About
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.