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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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 12^th 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.

Uzbek Girl 2011. Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

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 these figures and indicate in fact the number may be higher.

Uzbekistan is a closed society with an authoritarian regime where independent local and international monitors are heavily discouraged, and the media is not free to report critically without reprisals. Uzbekistan has not permitted the International Labour Organisation to enter the country and monitor the cotton harvest to determine the ages of people working and the conditions of their work.

Therefore, past estimates have had to rely on studies of some provinces and extrapolation from available known data

The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London has published studies of the use of children in the cotton harvest in Uzbekistan for a number of years. The latest study was based on past reports that were updated in 2010. Based on a survey of some areas, SOAS was able to estimate the number of children used in the cotton harvest:

Based on the survey of six districts, and extrapolating on the basis of further evidence, the conclusion was that ‘[p]ractically all school children between the ages of 10 and 15 years old (from 5th to 9th grades) in rural areas and small towns (district centres) were being recruited for the cotton harvest’ (SOAS, 2009: 19). This equates to about 2.4 million children in the 5th–9th grades and means that children picked an estimated 40–50% of the total cotton harvest.

In August of this year, a number of cables alleged to have been obtained from diplomatic sources by the activist group WikiLeaks were published. The release of these cables began in November 2010 and have continued throughout the year, culminating in the largest batch. Among these cables are numerous reports from the US embassy on its meetings with Uzbek officials and representatives of UNICEF regarding the issue of forced child labor.

In a cable dated June 6, 2008, the US Embassy in Tashkent quoted the figure supplied by the state-controlled trade union:

According to a knowledgeable source, the Trade Union of Uzbekistan (a quasi-governmental organization) estimated in 2008 that 1.64 million school-age children were involved in agricultural work, including cotton picking, representing 45 percent of the total number of Uzbek schoolchildren in grades 5 to 11.

Since most of the agricultural work performed by school-children in Uzbekistan relates to the cotton industry, it is safe to say that the 1.64 million children referenced here are involved in cotton-picking.

This cable also mentions non-governmental groups inside the country who have estimated that anywhere from several hundred thousands to 2 million children could be involved in harvesting cotton. In defense of argumentation that there are less children employed than previously, the cable notes the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey performed by UNICEF, a study that was later acknowledged by UNICEF to be flawed. The cable author as well notes that the survey was conducted in March and May 2006, and thus did not capture the use of children during the fall cotton harvest period from September through November.

Although this cable conceded both the NGO estimates of one million and even referenced the official trade union figure of 1.64, in a subsequent cable, a US diplomat contradicted the Embassy’s own previous assessments and claimed that NGO figures were not reliable.

NGOs have continued to press for the entry of the ILO into Uzbekistan, and to gather information about forced labor.

This season, there was a breakthrough when monitors inside Uzbekistan were able to get a hold of a document that indirectly confirms the numbers of children mobilized in one region.

The Paris-based group Association Droits de l’Homme en Asie Centrale (the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, AHRCA) recently was able to obtain an official government document that indicates plans by the authorities to send as many as 170,000 school-children to pick cotton in the Khorezm region.

The document — an official press release — is said to demonstrate the wide-scale involvement of the state bureaucracy in both coercing children and adults to pick cotton, and punishing them if they fail to obey orders.

The press-release, prepared by the Khorezm region Interior Ministry, stated:

In order to have a quality harvest, in the 2011 harvest, we will have a short time frame to mobilize cotton-pickers, a total of 202,641 people, including 34,800 students from colleges, and high schools. 463 temporary residences (302 field barracks), 109 civilian housing units, 52 tents, etc., have been prepared for their accommodation

This type of press release is typically distributed among local mass media and to the participants of staff meetings held nearly every evening during the cotton season at the offices of provincial and district authorities.

As AHRCA points out, if the authorities have given the total of 202,641 in their province, and the 34,800 college students are subtracted from that figure, the remainder is 167,841 people — and these are likely to be even younger students.

(In Uzbekistan, where children attend school for 10 years, “college” means a high-school level vocational school or academy for older teens).

While there is only an indirect indication that this figure of nearly 170,000 is a reference to school-age children, it’s very likely that for the purposes of planning, this is what is intended, since officials would know the exact number of students enrolled. If the reference was to day laborers, for example, the figure could only be approximate as the large number of labor migrants abroad and the numbers of those returning to Uzbekistan are fluid. If the reference was to teachers or other state employees, they would have been mentioned as a category of people.

Based on the figure of 170,000 out of the population of Khorezm, which constitutes 6% of all 13 cotton-producing regions of Uzbekistan, the likely number of schoolchildren mobilized to pick cotton throughout the country is then estimated at 2,797,350 persons, or at the very least, 2.5 million people.

The document also outlines the coercive nature of the cotton industry:

The subjects of this forced labor are not only schoolchildren and students, but the farmers themselves. Criminal proceedings are brought against those who plant anything other than cotton in their fields, such as more profitable crops, or those who allow livestock to graze in their fields. Two typical details from the press release of the Ministry of Internal Affairs:

1) “As a result of measures taken by law enforcement bodies, we have identified 230 cases of rice cultivation without permission, and among them 222 cases at farms and 8 cases of partial allotments, a total of 941 hectares…According to these facts, materials were prepared and brought to the courts to take action in accordance with the law.”

2) “…On June 2, 2011 in the village of Boshkirshik, Yangibazar district, in the cotton field at the Istikbol Farm owned by Atadjanov Saparboy (date of birth: 09/30/1956), a cow trampled 293 cotton bushes on a 95.4 square kilometer area.”

For this “offense,” the farmer’s cow was confiscated, slaughtered, and the meat was turned over to other agencies.

“This document demonstrates that the government of Uzbekistan does not intend to change anything in the command economy established in the cotton industry, with its usual practice of mass forced labor of workers sent to pick cotton each autumn,” says AHRCA.

“In our view, the only way to persuade the Uzbek government to stop the Stalinist practice of forced labor is to conduct a boycott of its cotton and textiles,” says AHRCA.

AHRCA has called upon the European Parliament to reject pending legislation that would give preferential tariffs for Uzbek textiles exported to Europe and to abolish the Generalized System of Preferences for Uzbek cotton and textiles.

Uzbek children, 2011. Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

According to accounts from other farmers and villagers, Ismail Turanazarov, age 50, had been reprimanded at a meeting in Murzrabot about the cotton harvest by the head of Surkhandarya region for failing to meet the daily state quota. Turanazarov was even arrested for 24 hours, which then served as the motivation for his desperate act. Although officials in Surkhandarya deny this account, human rights activists are saying that the pressures and harsh treatment of farmers unable to meet their quotas can be seen throughout Uzbekistan.

Farmers from Murzrabot describe the meeting on the cotton harvest that took place on September 12 with Turobjon Zhurayev, head of the Surkhandarya region. Zhurayev asked farmers who had not fulfilled their quotas to stand and then began berating them. After the meeting, the official ordered Turanazarov, another resident, Ziyodulla Kuldasheva, and three other farmers put in jail. After being held in the isolation cell for a day, Turanazarov returned home and wrote a suicide note and then killed himself. In his note, he blamed local authorities for the fact that he could not meet the quota, and said that as a farmer, he had not received timely financial support and fuel and that when he had appealed to the authorities for help with his problem, he still received nothing.

A criminal investigation has been opened into Turanazarov’s death. Uzbek human rights activists have commented on the extreme sensitivity of the farmer’s case, and have surmised that an official conclusion about his death will most likely not be publicized, and that likely no mention will be made that the government’s cotton policey was at fault. No mention will be made of the fact that farmers in Uzbekistan are not free to chose what to grow, or that the quotas for grain and cotton are the reason for many troubles in previous years. In 1996, a woman farmer from Jizzak who had her crops confiscated even after fulfilling the state grain quota threw herself under a combine.

Both local and foreign observers have noted that the chief problem for farmers is their treatment by state agencies. Although the government claims to protect farmers, in fact, officials create difficulties for sowing and harvesting, causing many to give up farming. The inability to get fuel in a timely manner, and even the inability to withdraw cash from their own bank accounts are some of the difficulties farmers face. Despite internationall criticism, Uzbekistan continues to offer a rather low wholesale price for cotton and grain; this year, when a kilogram of grain was valued at 2000 soums (about US $1.50), farmers were paid only several hundred soums by the state (about 10 cents).