In Uzbekistan, HRDs [human rights defenders] denouncing the use of forced child labour in the cotton fields were threatened, questioned and detained.

Among those facing repeated reprisals for her reporting was Elena Urlaeva.

Frontline has covered some of the past attacks on Urlaeva, including psychiatric internment which only ended after an international outcry.

In the past year, authorities have become more sophisticated in pressuring Urlaeva by constantly intervening in her family’s privacy to attempt to remove a small boy from her custody. She and her partner care for his nephew, as the boy’s mother has been unable to care for her son. So officials have continued to attempt to remove the child into state custody, using as a pretext the complaints filed by a pro-regime lawyer often found in cases harassing defenders/

Satirical Poster by Association for Human Rights in Central Asia

Demonstrators in France turned out on January 30th, President Islam Karimov’s 74th birthday, to call attention to the dictator’s many human rights violations.

The activists picked the Uzbek Embassy in Paris, but embassy staff refused to accept their petition or meet with the protesters, says fergananews.com.

Among the protesters were members of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, the Association of Christians Against the Death Penalty and Torture, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Amnesty International, the Fiery Hearts Club. They called for the release of all political prisoners in Uzbekistan.

Protest signs including a satirical poster (see above) showing Karimov’s face beaming like the sun over a toiling child forced to pick cotton and the slogan, “Work, Sonny, the Sun is Still High!”

During the period of 17 to 22 September 2011, 6 teams consisting of 14 UNICEF staff members visited cotton fields in Fergana, Namangan, Andijan, Navoi, Bhukara, Khorezm, Karakalpakstan, Samarkand, Jizzak, Tashkent, Surkhandarya, and Kashkadarya regions. UNICEF’s observations regarding the use of children in the cotton fields were shared in the form of an update and a final report with the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. UNICEF continues to act and advocate at all levels of governance and society for the progressive elimination of child labour in cotton production.

The statement is couched in cautious terms so as not to actually make a formal finding and a condemnation about forced child labour.

Instead, UNICEF prefers to speak in positive terms about the “progressive elimination” of child labour.

While UNICEF quietly provides copies of its reports to the US and other governments, the report is not made available to the public.

Speaking Cotton, a film by Stefanie Trambow and Erik Malchow, portrays the ongoing exploitation of children in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields. In German and Russian, with English subtitles.

Uzbek girl, 12, in Kashkadarya

Anti-Slavery International, the London-based non-governmental organisation working to elminate all forms of slavery worldwide, brought 13,072 signatures to the European Parliament on December 6, urging that members of parliament reject legislation that would reduce tariffs on imports of cotton from Uzbekistan.

Founded in 1839, Anti-Slavery is the world’s oldest international human rights organisation.

Anti-Slavery spent a year gathering the 13,072 signatures using the popular petitions site change.org and other campaign sites, and through the use of a video, “End Cotton Crimes.” They persuaded pop singer Ricky Martin to endorse the effort, and also got ethical fashion bloggers and online magazines for the ethical consumer to post the link to the petition.

The campaigners hand-delivered the package of signatures to the European Parliament on December 7th.  MEP Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat and supporter of anti-trafficking initiatives, invited to her office school-children who had written expressing their concern about their counterparts picking cotton in Uzbekistan.

As Anti-Slavery writes:

Shannon Harris aged 14, from Eastbourne said: “When I learnt what was going on in Uzbekistan, it was unbelievable. Students my age are supposed to be in school studying but are being forced to work in slavery picking cotton. Why is this still happening?”

The children were inspired by a lesson at school:

Neil Pittman, head of upper school at Bishop Bell, said: “After studying the UN Covention on the Rights of the Child, our pupils were shocked to hear that Uzbekistani children were forced by their government to work during the cotton harvest. The injustice of the situation was very clear to the pupils and they were concerned that cotton harvested by children may be used in the clothes they wear.”

Joanna Ewart-James, Anti-Slavery International’s Supply Chain Co-ordinator, said:

“International law demands immediate action to stamp out slavery and the European Union must consistently work to end this abuse. By rewarding Uzbekistan with trade preferences the EU is ignoring the reality of state-sponsored forced child labour in Uzbekistan.”

For years, Uzbek authorities have denied widespread reports that children are sent to the fields to pick cotton every harvest season.

Now viewers can see for themselves, thanks to video footage collected by human rights activists and sent to RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service. There is no denying that the school-age children in the video are picking cotton and carrying heavy sacks on their shoulders. Determining whether they were taken away from their studies or forced to work in the fields proves more difficult.

The human rights activists who provided the video, whose identities are being withheld for their protection, said one of the children identified himself as 10-year-old Otabek. Others look even younger.

Human-rights defenders and the region’s independent media, including the ferghana.ru news website, have reported that the children, as well as teenagers and college students, were all forced by the state to help harvest the country’s most valuable agricultural product.

Schools and colleges have been shut down in most parts of the country since mid-September, when the harvest season begins.

The footage was shot in Uzbekistan’s major cotton-producing regions, including the Ferghana Valley, Karakalpakistan Autonomous Republic, and the Khorezm and Qashqadaryo provinces.

One of the world’s major cotton producers, Uzbekistan has long been criticized for using what rights activist say is child labor during the two-month harvest season.

The widespread criticism has led some 60 clothing companies, including Gap, H&M, and Marks & Spencer to boycott Uzbek cotton until the country ends its practice of using children as cheap labor.

In September, the organizers of a New York fashion show canceled a runway presentation by Gulnora Karimova, the daughter of President Islam Karimov, amid protests by activists who claim her collection was made with Uzbek cotton harvested by children.

This week is the tail end of this year’s cotton harvest, and children are heading back to school to resume their studies.

By Shukhrat Bobojonov and Farangis Najibullah. Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

During the recent International Cotton and Textile Fair in Tashkent, not a single western buyer signed a contract for Uzbekistan’s cotton, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. This boycott demonstrates the strength of a pledge signed by more than 60 apparel manufacturers, brands and retailers to eliminate forced child labour in the cotton industry.

Jurewicz writes of the growing consumer demand for transparency:

Having buy-in throughout the entire global value chain, where all of the dots are connected, is essential. The time of transparency has come. Consumers and legislation are demanding it.

Consumers are demanding to know more about the goods they are purchasing and, thankfully, new technologies are being adopted to give this information to them right at the point of purchase.

US legislation is also starting to demand more transparency.

Read more here.

“I addressed my demands to Rustam Azimov because he is personally responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Cabinet of Ministers’ Resolution No.207 of 12th September 2008,” Tikhonov told uznews.net.

Earlier this year at the start of the cotton harvest, Angren authorities posted flyers around the city stating that the use of forced child labour was against the law, uznews.net reported.

Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov at annual meeting of Asian Development Bank, 2010. Photo by Asian Development Bank.

But the leaflet also carried a propaganda twist — it denounced the “mendacious insinuations and misinformation” of foreign media about allegations of widespread forced labour.

In fact, through the efforts of monitors this season, once again massive use of forced child labour has been documented throughout Uzbekistan.

The flyer carried a threat — “any attempts to force children to work, whether by threatening reprisals against the children themselves or their parents, will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of Uzbekistan.”

Parents said the flyer was too little, too late. By the time it was posted, their kids were already out in the fields. Decree 207 was designed to implement Uzbekistan’s obligations in ratifying the conventions of the International Labour Organisation regarding the worst forms of child labour. Activists say that little attention is paid to the decree, however; while it is published on the Internet, it is not broadcast or printed in Uzbekistan.

One good thing is that parents can now cite this law — if they dare, given the possible reprisals.

Tikhonov decided to take up the issue of the non-enforcement of Decree No. 207, and wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Azimov complaining about the forcible recruitment of vocational and high school students to pick cotton. He was particularly disturbed by the practice of parents paying large bribes of up to $120 to get their children out of the harvest. They were too afraid to protest.

Tikhonov, a member of the Human Rights Alliance, also protested the failure to publish the law. The human rights advocate himself has faced reprisals for his work. In 2010, he was approached by strangers on the street who asked why he was writing on the Internet — then hit him over the head with an iron bar. For some time he was denied an exit visa — still required for travel outside of Uzbekistan. He publicized his case and eventually was granted permission, and then was later able to return home.

By the time Saidburkhan, a traditional healer from a small Uzbek town in the Ferghana Valley, arrived at work on a recent autumn day, his private clinic specializing in herbal medicine was packed. Three blocks away, a government-run hospital was empty – most doctors and nurses, under pressure from local authorities, were out in the cotton fields, fulfilling government harvest quotas.

Elena Urlaeva and Abdujalil Boymatov with signs calling for President Karimov's resignation in 2003. Photo by Uznews.net

Police have come to the home of Elena Urlaeva of the Human Rights Alliance in Tashkent and attempted to remove her 7-year-old foster child, Muhammad, the independent website uznews.net reported.

The aim of the visit was quite simple: he [the policeman] said he had been asked to take Muhammad Mashurov away to a children’s home. But he didn’t show me any proof that he had the right to take a child away from their family. It never occurred to me that a small child could be made a victim of such an unlawful and arbitrary procedure.

The boy is the nephew of Urlayeva’s partner, Mansur Mashurov.

In recent months, Urlaeva has been monitoring the use of forced child labor in the cotton fields and has taken on other injustices in this Central Asian dictatorship, such as the persecution of journalists.

From Choihona at EurasiaNet.org