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	<title>Cotton Campaign</title>
	<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org</link>
	<description>Stop Forced and Child Labour in Uzbekistan!</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:44:49 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Frontline Defenders Condemn Attacks on Monitors of Forced Child Labour</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Frontline Defenders, a UK-based human rights organization, has noted in its annual report that the problem of forced child labour continues in Uzbekistan:
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 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2012/02/04/1067/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>French Protesters Mark Karimov&#8217;s Birthday</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Demonstrators in France turned out on January 30th, President Islam Karimov&#8217;s 74th birthday, to call attention to the dictator&#8217;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 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2012/01/31/french-protesters-mark-karimovs-birthday/</link>
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		<title>UNICEF Quietly Mentions &#8212; but Doesn&#8217;t Condemn &#8212; Forced Child Labour</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You have to dig to the last page of a specialized newsletter &#8212; but it&#8217;s there &#8212; the new  UNICEF-Uzbekistan Newsletter contains a single paragraph at the bottom of the final page of the  newsletter on forced child labour:
During  the period of 17 to 22 September 2011, 6 teams consisting of 14 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2012/01/15/unicef-quietly-mentions-but-doesnt-condemn-forced-child-labour/</link>
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		<title>Speaking Cotton &#8212; A New Film on Forced Child Labour</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A new film about forced child labour in the cotton industry in Uzbekistan was released in December. 
Speaking Cotton, a film by Stefanie Trambow and Erik Malchow, portrays the ongoing exploitation of children in Uzbekistan&#8217;s cotton fields. In German and Russian, with English subtitles.

]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2012/01/10/speaking-cotton-a-new-film-on-forced-child-labour/</link>
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		<title>Anti-Slavery International Brings 13,000 Signatures to EuroParliament</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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&#8217;s oldest international human rights organisation.
Anti-Slavery spent a year [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2011/12/07/anti-slavery-international-brings-13000-signatures-to-europarliament/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Kids Hard At Work In Uzbekistan&#8217;s Cotton Fields</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
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&#8217;s Uzbek Service. There is no denying that the school-age children in the video are picking cotton [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2011/12/04/kids-hard-at-work-in-uzbekistans-cotton-fields/</link>
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		<title>Time to Drive Child Labour From Value Chains</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Patricia Jurewicz,  director of the Responsible Sourcing Network, a project of As You Sow, has an op-ed piece at ethicalcorp.com, Time to Drive Child Labour From Value Chains:
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 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2011/11/29/time-to-drive-child-labour-from-value-chains/</link>
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		<title>Activist Urges Uzbek Officials to Comply with Anti-Forced Labour Law</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2011/11/29/activist-urges-uzbek-officials-to-comply-with-anti-forced-labour-law/</link>
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		<title>Clinics Empty as Medical Personnel Forced to Pick Cotton</title>
		<description><![CDATA[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 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2011/11/14/clinics-empty-as-medical-personnel-forced-to-pick-cotton/</link>
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		<title>Authorities Threaten To Take Foster Child of Human Rights Activist</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A human rights leader in Uzbekistan says she is suffering backlash for her work. 
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 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.cottoncampaign.org/2011/11/14/authorities-threaten-to-take-foster-child-of-human-rights-activist/</link>
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