Uzbek 5th Grader in Karakalpakstan, Photo by Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

Buoyed by the success of the picket to protest inclusion of Gulnara Karimova in New York’s Fashion Week, the International Labor Rights Forum is planning a picket next week in Washington, DC as Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev arrives for meetings with the business elite in the capital.

The Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan is infamous for its widespread abuses of human rights and its state policy of forcing children to work in cotton fields across the country. That won’t stop the American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce from advocating for continued business partnerships with the brutal Uzbek regime.

Every year, the government of Uzbekistan removes up to two million children from schools across the country and forces them to pick cotton. Reports continue to flood out of Uzbekistan that children and adults are being forced into the cotton fields right now during the current harvest season. This widely documented, abusive state policy enriches a cadre of elites and fuels a regime characterized as “an authoritarian state” by the U.S. Department of State. Uzbekistan is one of the largest cotton producing countries in the world and cotton harvested there by forced child labor finds its way into the U.S. garment industry. Additionally, the government of Uzbekistan has been criticized for jailing independent journalists and human rights defenders, torturing prisoners and a range of other rights violations.

The US-Uzbekistan Annual Business Forum, sponsored by the American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce, will feature top business and government representatives from the US and Uzbekistan including the Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elyor Ganiev. Join us outside the US-Uzbekistan Annual Business Forum to call for an end to forced child labor and human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.

RSVP ONLINE HERE! For more information, visit the International Labor Rights Forum at www.LaborRights.org or contact laborrights@ilrf.org or 202-347-4100.

Have you been reading all the news about the Uzbek dictator’s daughter and how labour and human rights campaigners were able to convince the organizers of Fashion Week to cancel Gulnara Karimova’s fashion show?

This seemed like an impossibility at one time, as Karimova was here last year and backed by powerful Fashion Week sponsor Mercedes Benz. Yet the organizers responded to the pleas of the cotton campaign and disinvited this symbol of Uzbek repression.

There’s much more we need to do to raise awareness and get action to stop the sourcing of Uzbek cotton by Western companies that help prop up Uzbekistan’s dictatorship.

During Fashion Week (September 8-15), if you live in the New York area, you can take part in a picket in New York to urge the apparels industry to pledge to refrain from sourcing their cotton in Uzbekistan.

You can also call on Cipriani, the events space where Uzbek dictator’s daughter Gulnara Karimova is now rescheduling her disgraced fashion show, not to provide her a space either. (Cotton campaign protests have been successful in getting IMG, the organizers of Fashion Week, to cancel her show at Lincoln Center).

Already 60 brands and a major industry association have pledged not to source cotton in Uzbekistan as forced child labour is used there, thanks to the work of Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN). The International Labor Rights Forum (ILHR) has already successfully petitioned Gymborree, A Child’s Place and other companies recently who have responded to thousands of signatures and changed their policies.

Campaigners are looking for more signatures for new campaigns now addressing these brands:

o Forever 21

o Aeropostale

o Urban Outfitters

o Toys ‘R Us

If you’re a parent of children or teenagers like me, you know at this back-to-school time these are exactly the shops that your kids go to for clothes, accessories and toys. So sign the petition and tell your children that kids just their age are forced to miss school and work in the cotton fields. If you have a teen aged 13 or older, they can help raise awareness and sign these petitions as well at Change.org (you must be 13 or older to use this site) — it’s a great way to help young people understand the connected world they live in. High schools often ask students to find a community service project to work on — learning about forced child labour and signing these petitions to the companies where they shop could be just such a project.

But she’s not giving up and has been searching for a new venue. According to the New York Post, she has contracted with Cipriani, an upscale restaurant and event space in Manhattan, to put on her show anyway this Thursday at noon, the Post confirmed.

Labour and human rights activists in New York who have been protesting her presence during Fashion Week are now calling on the owners of Cipriani not to allow the show to go on, as a symbol of oppression in Uzbekistan and the use of forced child labour. The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) has organized a petition at Change.org urging foreign embassies that have been contacted not to host her show, either.

Gulnara Karimova is the daughter of strongman Islam Karimov, whose regime is widely criticized for its brutal violations of human rights and for sponsoring forced child labor in the country’s cotton fields. Karimova serves as her country’s ambassador to Spain. New reports from Uzbekistan reveal how young people are removed from school and are forced to pick cotton to meet government-imposed production quotas. The organizations, including the American Federation of Teachers, the International Labor Rights Forum and the Open Society Foundations, urge the fashion industry to take a stand immediately and implement a ban on cotton from Uzbekistan.

Various organizations are still going ahead with organizing a rally and fashion show on Thursday September 15 from 11am to 1pm ET at Lincoln Center to show the fashion industry that children are still exploited in the production of cotton. To join the rally, go to the ILRF website.

For more information contact:
Tim Newman, tim.newman@ilrf.org, 617-823-9464 or 202-347-4100 x113
Tom Lansworth, tlanswor@aft.org, 202-393-6351

International Labor Rights Forum

Labor and human rights activists are planning to hold a demonstration outside her show in New York City on September 15 with the slogan “Forced Child Labor is Out of Style!”

Every year, the government of Uzbekistan removes up to two million children from schools across the country and forces them to pick cotton. This widely documented, abusive state policy enriches a cadre of elites, including the Karimov family, and fuels a regime characterized as “an authoritarian state” by the U.S. Department of State.

Uzbekistan is among the largest cotton producing countries in the world and cotton harvested there by forced child labor finds its way into the U.S. garment industry.

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) is calling for people in the New York area to come and support the action:

We need your support this month in New York to end this abuse! Join us in telling Gulnara Karimova, who prides herself on using Uzbek textiles, that we won’t let children become fashion victims. Come to a rally on the streets outside her fashion show, where young New Yorkers will put on their own fashion show, walking the runway to urge justice for their peers in Uzbekistan.

Find out more details and RSVP online here.

The rally to stop forced child labour in Uzbekistan will take place Thursday, September 15 from 11 am to 1 pm at The Studio at the Lincoln Center, which is at the corner of W. 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

For more information contact Tim Newman at tim.newman@ilrf.org or +1-202-347-4100 x113.

After more than 360 people contacted The Children’s Place about its policies related to forced child labor in cotton from Uzbekistan, the company has confirmed that it instructs its suppliers not to use Uzbek cotton, joining scores of other companies who have made similar commitments, the International Labor Rights Forum reports.

Jane Singer, Vice President of Investor and Media Relations at The Children’s Place commented:

The Children’s Place commends the efforts to end forced child labor in Uzbekistan and will continue to do everything we can to support these efforts.

The International Labor Rights Forums has started a new petition to the clothing company Carter’s to get another brand to focus on removal of Uzbek cotton from their supply chain, as it is produced by forced child labor:

Carter’s has a policy against using child and forced labor, but it has not publicly addressed the unique state-sponsored practice of forced child labor in Uzbekistan nor has it provided any information about how it ensures that its suppliers do not use Uzbek cotton tainted by these egregious human rights abuses.

Your signature works! In the past, campaigns organized by the ILRF were effective in getting Abercrombie & Fitch, Gymborree and the Children’s Place to announce policies prohibitng the use of Uzbek cotton.

Add your signature now to send a message to Carter’s to uphold international labor rights!

Jane Singer, Vice President of Investor and Media Relations at The Children’s Place commented, “The Children’s Place commends the efforts to end forced child labor in Uzbekistan and will continue to do everything we can to support these efforts.”

We have a new action for people concerned about forced child labour in Uzbekistan, recently condemned at the International Labour Organisation annual conference.

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) has posted a petition at change.org addressed to The Children’s Place, which has yet to catch up to its competitors in condemning Uzbekistan’s abusive practices:

The government of Uzbekistan continues to remove millions of children across the country from school and force them to pick cotton during the harvest season. While over 70 of the world’s largest apparel brands and retailers have developed policies related to Uzbek cotton, the Children’s Place, one of the biggest children’s clothing retailers in the country has remained silent. The Children’s Place has a policy against using child and forced labor, but it has not publicly addressed the unique state-sponsored practice of forced child labor in Uzbekistan nor has it provided any information about how it ensures that its suppliers do not use Uzbek cotton tainted by these egregious human rights abuses. So far, the Children’s Place has refused to support human rights and speak out against forced child labor in the cotton industry, unlike its top competitors like the Gap and Gymboree.

Petitions do work! The appeal to Gymboree, signed by thousands of concerned people, led to the company’s executives changing their minds and publishing a pledge to remove Uzbek cotton from their supply chain.

So please sign and make your voice heard!

Bama Athreya, President, GlobalWorks Foundation and Judy Gearhart, Executive Director, International Labor Rights Forum have co-authored an article on The Huffington Post,  one of the most widely-read publications on the Internet.

Titled What We Can Do on World Day Against Child Labor (June 12) — and we could add — on any day — the article has a simple request to speak up about the use of children in the cotton industry in Uzbekistan:

School’s out for children across the country and we are pulling out our cool cotton T-shirts and shorts. Yesterday on World Day Against Child Labor, we might keep in mind that in some countries, when school’s out, the hard labor begins – and in one notable case, it is to pick the cotton that goes into our summer clothes.

This past week, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) held hearings on forced child labor in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek government denied the problem. The ILO, however, was not convinced; its Committee on Application of Standards called for the government to accept a high level investigative mission. The Committee’s decision came after a hearing earlier in the week where employers and trade unions from the US and Europe were strongly aligned in urging for an ILO monitoring mission to take a closer look after the welfare of Uzbek school children.

We all need to send messages to the Government of Uzbekistan that we won’t accept cotton produced with the sweat and tears of children.

MORE…

So get informed about the issue of child labor in Uzbekistan in the cotton industry by reading this web site.

Then we encourage you to send brief, politely-worded messages to the Uzbek government — send a link (here) to Bama Athreya’s and Judy Gearhart’s blog from  The Huffington Post.

You can write the office of President Islam Karimov or the Uzbek Foreign Ministry.

Sample wording:

Dear President Karimov,

I am concerned about an article I have read in The Huffington Post about the plight of children in Uzbekistan who are taken from school and forced to work in dangerous conditions in the cotton fields. We urge you to comply with Uzbekistan’s obligations under conventions of the International Labour Organisation to ensure that this practice cases, and call on you to accept the investigative mission of the ILO this fall during the harvest season to work toward the eradication of the worst forms of child labour.

Since Gulnora is linked to the holding company Zeromax, which boasts thousands of acres planted under cotton, Sting’s dirty money is likely to have been in part wrung out of the exhausted land by the tired little hands of Uzbek school-kids.  Though to be 100% fair, Zeromax denies that it uses child labor to harvest its cotton (but this deserves a post of its own).

Everyone has a chance to let Sting know what they think of his moneymaking venture via this petition, asking him to sign over his profits from the show to the cause of Uzbek human rights.

See the group’s call to action here, and here.