Uzbekistan: Labor Rights Monitor Sharifa Madrakhimova Had Passport Destroyed, Cotton Campaign Calls For Investigation
Sharifa Madrakhimova was prevented from traveling to Dublin to receive the Human Rights Defenders At Risk Award during a ceremony on May 22, 2025. Photo: Front Line Defenders
Madrakhimova Prevented From Traveling To Dublin To Receive Award For Her Long-Standing Human Rights Work, Including In The Cotton Sector
(Washington, DC, June 2, 2025) The Uzbek government should conduct a prompt, independent, and transparent investigation of the destruction of Sharifa Madrakhimova’s passport, the Cotton Campaign said. Madrakhimova, a prominent journalist, human rights activist, and independent labor rights monitor, was prevented from traveling to Dublin to receive the Human Rights Defenders At Risk Award during a ceremony on May 22, 2025. When Madrakhimova received her passport with her Irish visa, she discovered that the biometric chip on the last page had been burnt, rendering her passport invalid and preventing her from traveling.
This incident, which is the third in only one year targeting Madrakhimova for her human rights work, signals what appears to be a worsening environment for human and labor rights in Uzbekistan. The government should reinforce reforms to ensure protection and respect for freedoms of movement, association, and expression, the Cotton Campaign continued. Independent monitors, activists, journalists, as well as workers and farmers and their legitimate representatives should be able to meaningfully exercise these rights. Such an enabling environment would ensure progress towards a sustainable cotton and textile industry and demonstrate that Uzbekistan can meet international labor standards necessary to attract responsible sourcing by global brands.
“The destruction of Madrakhimova’s passport was clearly a deliberate act to prevent Madrakhimova from traveling to receive recognition for her human rights work—including monitoring and reporting on labor rights in the cotton sector—and to engage with human rights defenders from other countries”, said Raluca Dumitrescu, Senior Coordinator of the Cotton Campaign coalition. “If Uzbekistan is serious about making real progress toward achieving decent work in its cotton and textile sectors, the government and industry should recognize that civil society, activists, and journalists play a key role in making this a reality—as they did in helping to end systemic forced labor. They must be allowed to conduct their critical work without surveillance or fear of intimidation and harassment.”
Madrakhimova was scheduled to travel to Dublin on May 20, 2025. A few weeks earlier, on May 7, 2025, following approval by the Irish authorities of her visa application, Madrakhimova received her passport with an Irish visa stamp via DHL at her residence in Fergana. However, when she opened the DHL package, Madrakhimova noticed that the last page of her passport, where the biometric chip is located, appeared to have been burnt. Authorities at the Passport Office told her that the damage invalidated her passport. Despite filing a request with the Passport Office for an expedited procedure to be issued a new passport, Madrakhimova did not receive her passport in time for her scheduled trip to Ireland. She had been assured multiple times that her new passport would be issued within ten days, by May 19 at the latest, yet she only received it on May 26, almost a week after she was supposed to travel.
Madrakhimova has routinely faced harassment and interference with her legitimate human rights work. In April 2024, Madrakhimova and leading human rights activist Umida Niyazova, director of Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, were ambushed by two men in front of Madrakhimova’s house in the Fergana region, who intimidated and insulted them, accusing them of tarnishing Uzbekistan’s image. Niyazova and Madrakhimova had been traveling throughout the region to meet with farmers and representatives of cotton clusters. Earlier this year, in February 2025, Madrakhimova was summoned to the police station for publicising the story of a group of farmers from Namangan who had called on their district governor to allow them to temporarily grow strawberries while their land is cleared of cotton, so they can sustain their livelihoods.
“Human rights activism and independent civil society monitoring of the annual cotton harvest—including by Madrakhimova—have played a critical role in driving an end to systemic state-imposed forced labor in the cotton sector”, said Bennett Freeman, Cotton Campaign co-founder and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. “Preventing human rights defenders and monitors from leaving the country or exerting intimidation and pressure in other ways puts this progress at risk. The Uzbek government should ensure accountability for these acts and take concrete steps to prevent any further rights violations.”
“Independent reporting on labor rights is essential for continuing improvements in the cotton sector and providing brands with credible information”, said Nate Herman, Senior Vice President of Policy, American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA). “We urge the Uzbek government to ensure that monitors, activists, and journalists can operate unimpeded. Freedoms of movement, association, and expression are fundamental to a sustainable cotton and textile industry.”
Rather than silencing a discussion of human rights in Uzbekistan, the apparent deliberate destruction of Madrakhimova’s passport has amplified the restrictions, harassment, and intimidation faced by human rights activists in the country. The incident has also been reported by Front Line Defenders, which awarded Madrakhimova the Human Rights Defenders at Risk Award for Europe and Central Asia. Madrakhimova made an online intervention at the Frontline Defenders ceremony on May 22, 2025 and Umida Niyazova delivered a speech on behalf of Madrakhimova. The speech highlights not only Madrakhimova’s journey to becoming a human rights activist—by matter of necessity—but also the key role that independent monitors played in ending systemic forced labor of cotton pickers and that a thriving civil society, including civil society monitoring and reporting, is vital to ensure accountability and transparency moving forward.
Preventing Madrakhimova’s travel is the latest in a series of incidents targeting independent monitors, activists, workers, and other independent voices from speaking out on rights violations or seeking to organize.
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The Cotton Campaign is a coalition of human and labor rights NGOs, independent trade unions, brand and retail associations, responsible investor organizations, supply chain transparency groups, and academic partners, united to end forced labor and promote decent work in cotton supply chains in Central Asia.
