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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 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.
Tags: field reports > ILO > Uzbek government > Uzbek human rights groups
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 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.
Authorities Threaten To Take Foster Child of Human Rights Activist
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
Actions, Not Words in Uzbekistan
Jeff Goldstein, a senior policy analyst at the Open Society Foundations, has a letter to the editor in The Washington Post critiquing the statement from a senior State Department official claiming that Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov wants to introduce democratic reforms.
The statement was made during a briefing for the press while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s was visiting Uzbekistan.
The State Department’s own reports don’t support this premise, nor does a letter from Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake sent to NGOs recently, says Goldstein:
So why does a senior U.S. official now believe Mr. Karimov’s pious statements, against all the evidence of the Uzbek dictator’s past actions and previous official U.S. statements and reports? Is it because the United States needs Karimov to keep supplies flowing to Afghanistan?
Primitive Living Conditions for Children Picking Cotton in Uzbekistan
Recent photos obtained by the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights expose the starkly promitive living conditions for children labouring in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan.
These photos, taken in October in Kashkadarya region, Uzbekistan show that children as young as 12 are picking cotton and living in primitive conditions for weeks during the harvest.
Uzbek girl, 12, in Kashkadarya
They are forced to sleep together in groups in rooms with only cardboard placed on the floor, with blankets they have brought from home. Their clothes are placed in bags along the wall.
Carboard placed on the floor of spartan sleeping quarters in Kashkadarya.
Girl resting on the floor in cotton harvest, Kashkadarya
For washing up, they have plastic bowls affixed to a log.
The school-children do their own cooking.
Cotton harvest, Kashkadarya
Teachers accompany the children to the fields and work themselves.
Girls in Kashkadarya cotton field.
Children and teacher, Kashkadarya
Girl in cotton fields, Kashkadarya
Somehow, this girl is able to smile despite these primitive and hard working and living conditions in the cotton harvest in Kashkadarya.
Tags: field reports > Harvest 2011 > Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights
UNICEF Confirms Uzbek Government Invitation to Observe Child Labour
Young girl picking cottin in Kashkadarya, October 2011
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 to give him comprehensive assistance in organizing monitoring of the problem of child labor.
Publications by WikiLeaks of alleged classified diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Tashkent indicate that UNICEF repeatedly tried to minimize the scale of the problem of forced child labor in Uzbekistan and argued against a boycott, EurasiaNet reported.
UNICEF has not made any comment about the WikiLeaks revelations.
Meanwhile, this year, as in past years child labor in the cotton harvest has been documented by local monitors. The Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan reported that in Kashkadarya province, fifth-graders were taken to harvest the cotton.
“The daily quota is 80-100 kilos. For each harvested kilo, 150 soums (about 5 cents) is paid,” Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group told Radio Ozodlik.
It is important to point out that while the Uzbek government decided to invite UNICEF to observe child labor, it has refused to invite an independent monitoring group from the International Labor Organization (ILO), however.
Uzbek authorities also continue to interfere with the monitoring of child labor by Uzbek human rights activists. In Koson district, two human rights activists from Kashkadarya were detained by police for monitoring the use of children in the cotton harvest.
In recent years, more than 60 Western companies have pledged not to buy Uzbek cotton in order to compel the government to cease the use of child labor, Responsible Sourcing Network reports. They include Wal-Mart, Marks & Spencer, the Gap, Tesco, Gymboree and others.
The Uzbek government continues to deny that children are forced to work in the harvest.
Tags: field reports > UNICEF > Uzbek government > Uzbek human rights groups
Response from Assistant Secretary of State Blake to Activists Against Child Labour
A letter from Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake in reply to an appeal from human rights and labour activists September 27 was received, dated October 18:
Response to Sept 27 HR Ltr on Uzbekistan
Clinton Heads to Uzbeki-beki-beki-stan-stan amid Rights Protests
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed off to Uzbekistan this weekend as part of her tour of Central Asia which included a surprise visit to Afghanistan Thursday.
While chatting with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul yesterday, Clinton took time to joke about a recent humorous incident in the United States, when Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain told reporters that he didn’t know who the president of “Uzbeki-beki-beki-stan-stan” was — and didn’t think it mattered because it had nothing to do with creating jobs.
Karzai listened to Clinton’s anecdote about Cain and commented, “That isn’t right, but that’s how politics are” (see the video at the Washington Post here.)
Pundits are now endeavoring to explain to Cain just why Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov is important — because of the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), the supply line to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The US is now intensively engaging with Karimov, a dictator who has held his country in thrall for 22 years, sending thousands of devout Muslims to prison for their religious activity outside of state confines, and jailing dozens of independent journalists and human rights activists for trying to report on the massive human rights violations.
Recently the Obama Administration persuaded the Senate Appropriations Committee to lift restrictions on military aid to Uzbekistan, in place for 7 years over severe human rights problems in Uzbekistan, in order to help bolster the NDN, proffered to Uzbekistan as an opportunity to build stability and prosperity in a new US-backed “Silk Road”.
Alarmed at what they saw as an abandonment of principles, US human rights activists appealed to Clinton in September to raise Uzbekistan’s many human rights problems of political imprisonment, torture, suppression of the media, and forced child labor in the cotton industry. Labor unions and rights groups also picketed a high-profile conference at the American Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce of State Department officials, visiting Uzbek Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev, and American corporations doing business in Uzbekistan such as Honeywell and General Motors.
Clinton is scheduled to visit the General Motors plant in Tashkent during her visit.
On the eve of her visit, again a coalition of human rights advocates, labor unions, retailers and investors addressed an appeal to Clinton, urging her to raise with the Uzbek government its failure to admit a delegation of the ILO into Uzbekistan to inspect the cotton fields. Andrew Strohlein of the International Crisis Group has called the Uzbekistan’s mobilization of students to pick cotton, documented extensively this year by Uzbek human rights monitors, “The world’s largest state-run program of forced child labour.”
Just as the activists’ new appeal went out, the State Department responded with an answer to their past letter of September 27. In a letter obtained by EurasiaNet dated October 18, Robert O. Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs replied that the Department of State “actively seeks to improve Uzbekistan’s democratic and civil society development and its record on human rights” yet implies that “national security interests” must take priority:
Congress has prohibited the use of foreign assistance funds for assistance to the central Government of Uzbekistan unless the Secretary of State determines and reports to Congress that Uzbekistan is making substantial and continuing progress on specific issues related to promotion of democracy and respect for internationally recognized human rights. We have not thought it appropriate up to this point to provide such a certification, and have continued to provide limited assistance that involves working with Uzbek government institutions — in such areas as counternarcotics, health, and nonproliferation — by using certain available notwithstanding authorities and in consultation with Congress.
The Department of State remains concerned over continued reports of the Uzbek government’s widespread use of forced child and adult labor in the centrally managed cotton harvest, including the harvest that is being conducted now. I and other Department principals raise this issue frequently with the government, including our urging the government to allow credible, outside parties (such as the International Labor Organization) to monitor the cotton harvest.
“Currently, the statutory restriction cannot be waived on national security grounds,” nevertheless Blake explains. The new legislation would give the Secretary of State authority to waive the restriction as “in the national security interest of the United States” — although currently the draft legislation mandates six-month reporting to review possible corruption in contracts, and an annual human rights examination. The purpose, says Blake, is to “provide defensive non-lethal equipment to enhance Uzbekistan’s ability to protect its border with Afghanistan, through which cargo destined for U.S. forces flows.”
In a press conference following her meeting with Uzbek Foreign Minister Elyor Ganiev, Clinton claimed that Uzbekistan seemed to be making progress.. Human rights groups were puzzled, as they couldn’t see the improvements or even what State could have meant by them. Blake now actually contradicts this in his letter:
This limited waiver and the provision of defensive border protection equipment to Uzbekistan would not in any way diminish our efforts to encourage respect for human rights in Uzbekistan. It also does not state that we think Uzbekistan has made substantial or adequate progress to date.
According to the Uzbek government, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and the United States grew from $100.3 million in January-June 2010 to $131.5 million in the same period of 2011. So the amounts of trade are not large, and the military component more symbolic than anything. Nevertheless, it’s a victory in the Uzbek government’s quest for legitimacy, and it remains to be seen whether the US can leverage Tashkent’s desire for international respectibility into some actual human rights progress — or even some of those jobs Herman Cain was concerned about.
This article first appeared on the Choihona blog at EurasiaNet.
US Advocates Against Child Labour Appeal to Clinton on Eve of Visit to Uzbekistan
Photo by AP/State.gov. Secretary Rodham Clinton shakes hands with U.S. Amb. Ryan Crocker as Afghan chief of protocol Hamid Saddiq (2nd R) and Lt. General Curtis Scaparotti (Left) look on in Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct.19, 2011.
Advocates against the use of forced child labour in Uzbekistan spoke out again today in an appeal to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the eve of her trip to Central Asia.
Twenty representatives of American trade unions, labor and human rights groups, investors, brands and retailers called on Secretary Clinton to raise with Uzbek President Islam Karimov the need to permit the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to enter Uzbekistan to inspect conditions in the cotton fields.
Reliable reports indicate year that as many as 1.5 million children are removed from school and forced to work in the harvest.
The letter indicates that a number of years of dialogue have gone on with the Uzbek government about these concerns without action:
We do recognize this is a complex problem that will require time to address. However, we note with grave concern that the steps we had supported three years ago as the first and simplest ‘good faith’ measures that might have been taken by the Government of Uzbekistan have, to date, not been taken.
Uzbek human rights monitors and journalists have reported numerous instances this year of children as young as 8 and 10 picking cotton, with many students aged 12-14, below the allowable standard for some types of labour. They have also uncovered confirmation that Uzbek state officials deliberately mobilize students through coercion and threats and plan for their exploitation in the annual cotton harvest.
Clinton is touring through Asia to bolster ties with regional powers involved in supplying troops in Afghanistan. She made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan today. The Secretary plans to visit the General Motors plant in Tashkent.
The full text of the letter is as follows:
October 19, 2011
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
US Department of State
via fax
Dear Secretary Clinton,
We represent a broad, international coalition of human rights organizations, trade unions , brands and retailers, investors, industry associations and other nongovernmental organizations brought together by our common concern over continued use of forced child labor in Uzbekistan . We understand you will be visiting Uzbekistan shortly, and urge you to make a priority of this issue in any discussions with the Uzbek government.
As you are aware, your visit also coincides with the opening of the fall harvest in Uzbekistan, when an estimated 1 1/2 million children are compelled to pick cotton. Recent spot reports and photographs circulated by activists within Uzbekistan have documented that children as young as 8 are currently being removed from school and forced to participate in the cotton harvest. The spot reports indicate that, despite cosmetic measures by the Uzbek government to respond to international concerns, the practice of widespread mobilization of children and youths continues unabated in the current harvest.
We have appreciated the opportunity to communicate these concerns directly with you, and with senior staff at the State Department, over the past three years, and look forward to further engagement with the Department on this important issue, particularly in the run-up to the 2012 International Labor Conference. We do recognize this is a complex problem that will require time to address. However, we note with grave concern that the steps we had supported three years ago as the first and simplest ‘good faith’ measures that might have been taken by the Government of Uzbekistan have, to date, not been taken.
We continue to believe that the only step that can truly demonstrate that the government in Taskhent is interested in making significant efforts to address this problem is for it to invite the International Labour Organization (ILO) to send a high level observer mission, as recommended by the ILO’s Committee on the Application of Standards, to assess child labor in Uzbekistan during the cotton harvest. As you are aware, for the second year since this recommendation was first put forward, the Government of Uzbekistan has refused to allow such a mission, even though this would have been a natural follow-on to Uzbekistan’s ratification of the ILO’s child labor conventions.
We urge you to indicate that unless the Government of Uzbekistan takes this key step, and thereby demonstrates a willingness to make significant efforts to combat forced child labor, they risk a downgrade to Tier III on the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons list, and the consequences that may trigger.
We appreciate the opportunity to share with you our ongoing concern with forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton production, and look forward to further engagement with the Department on this important issue.
Sincerely,
American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA)
AFL-CIO
American Federation of Teachers
Anti-Slavery International
Boston Common Asset Management
Calvert Asset Management
CREA: Center for Reflection, Action and Education
Child Labor Coalition
Fair Labor Association
Human Rights Watch
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
International Labor Rights Forum
National Consumers League
National Retail Federation
Responsible Sourcing Network
Retail Industry Leaders Association
Open Society Foundations
Social Accountability International (SAI)
U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA)
United States Council for International Business
Uzbek Boy, 13, Struck by Car As He Returned Home from Cotton Fields
A young Uzbek schoolboy returning home at night from the cotton fields where he had laboured all day was struck by a car and seriously injured last month, and remains in a coma, the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA) reports.
Bakhodir Pardaev, age 13, a 7th-grader at School No. 24 in the Chirakchi district in Kashkadarya province was run over by a car in mid-September while returning home with other schoolchildren from the cotton fields, AHRCA reports.
Human rights monitors have condemned the practice of forced child labour in Uzbekistan, and have repeatedly warned about the poor conditions middle-school children must work in. Accidents like this have happened before as groups of children are compelled to walk along highways at night from the fields.
Bakhodir was struck by a car at the 12th kilometer of the Hirakchi-Karshi highway driven by Bakhtiyor Yakhshiboev. With Bakhktiyor in the vehicle was his brother, Jalol Yakhshiboev, who happens to be a reporter at the Kashkadarya provincial state television station.
Bakhodir was sent in September along with his classmates to pick cotton at the Sokhibkor Farm owned by Usanov Eshdavlat located several kilometers from his school.
The boy was rushed to the local emergency room with a ruptured spinal cord, a fracture of his right jaw, a broken arm and leg and injury to the right side of his upper body. He has remained in a coma, and was eventually transferred to the neurological ward at the Karshi provincial hospital on September 26.
Makhbuba Ergasheva, the mother of Bakhodir, called on the local prosecutor to launch an investigation into the accident, but no action has been taken.
According to local sources, the journalist enjoys the protection of the local khokim or mayor, Nuriddin Zainiev, and authorities may be blocking an investigation into the accident caused by the journalist’s brother.
National Security Service officers have been guarding the hospital to prevent any leak of information about the condition of the boy, and the heartbroken parents have been forbidden to contact human rights defenders or independent journalists, says AHRCA.
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REPORTS
Download 2012 CEGG Report Forced Child Labour in Uzbekistan
The state-controlled forced labor system of cotton production in Uzbekistan continues to violate the human rights of Uzbek children and adults in order to support the central government with revenues from cotton exports. This report identifies alarming trends of the most recent harvests, including the increased tendencies of civil servants forced to pick cotton and children forced to work the most difficult and dangerous end of the harvest. The report calls for an ILO monitoring mission and action from the governments of the European Union and the U.S., the World Bank, and the private sector to stop forced labor in the cotton sector of Uzbekistan.