Uzbekistan: New Report Shows State Coercion Of Farmers Creates Risk Of Forced Labor
Government Recommitment To Reform Critical To Achieve A Sustainable Cotton Sector Following The End Of Systemic Forced Labor In The Harvest
(Washington, DC, February 18, 2026) Farmers in Uzbekistan should be allowed to exercise their fundamental right to freedom of association, which is essential to eliminate ongoing risks of forced labor in the cotton sector, said the Cotton Campaign Coalition. The call comes as Human Rights Watch and Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, both members of the Coalition, earlier this week published ““Farmers Have No Freedom”, Abuse and Exploitation of Cotton and Wheat Farmers in Uzbekistan”, a report that documents the Uzbek government’s ongoing coercive control over the production of cotton and wheat, despite the elimination of systemic state-imposed forced labor of cotton pickers in 2021. The report describes the vulnerability of farmers and the use of state coercion, including threats of land seizure, harassment and physical abuse, and arbitrary detention, to enforce state-set production quotas. The report concludes that these conditions together create a risk of forced labor.
“Eliminating the remaining risks of forced labor in the cotton sector in Uzbekistan requires farmers being able to organize and assert collective agency in deciding the terms under which they grow and sell cotton,” said Raluca Dumitrescu, Senior Coordinator of the Cotton Campaign Coalition, Global Labor Justice. “The Uzbek government should end all coercive and punitive practices in the country’s agricultural sector and ensure that farmers can form cooperatives and other independent representative organizations without undue interference to advocate jointly for their rights.”
The report shows that the state exerts significant pressure on farmers in Uzbekistan to ensure the production of cotton and wheat—two strategic crops for Uzbekistan—in amounts set by the government and at prices set by Uzbekistan’s Commodity Exchange, a trading platform for goods and products. Farmers are compelled to sell these crops to private cotton-textile and wheat processing and producing companies, and have very limited power to negotiate prices or choose to which company they sell their crops. The local authorities in their district, often with the assistance of law enforcement, pressure farmers to fulfill and deliver their production quotas to the companies. In addition to documenting state coercion, the report shows that some farmers are at risk of losing their livelihoods due to delayed or no payments by the companies.
In several cases, farmers attempted to exercise their right to freedom of association and join together into cooperatives to process and sell their crops on the domestic commodity exchange, as an alternative to growing products for private companies. While the Uzbek government has since adopted a law making explicit the right of farmers to join cooperatives, the pattern of interference by local authorities documented in the report—including authorities seeking legal action to shut cooperatives down—shows more needs to be done to ensure farmers may exercise this right in practice.
“Government action to end state coercion of farmers is essential to stay on the reform path following the elimination of systemic state-imposed forced labor of cotton pickers,” said Nate Herman, Executive Vice President, American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA). ”There is no pathway to compliance with international standards without allowing farmers to exercise their rights, including bargaining rights and freedom of choice over which crops they grow and which cotton companies they enter into contracts with.”
Some farmers reported that not receiving payments in time or in full from cotton-textile companies has had a compound effect on their ability to pay their farm workers. The report does not address the working conditions of workers hired by farmers for agricultural work all year round. However, independent civil society monitoring has found that farmers’ lack of power to negotiate and enforce contracts with cotton companies weakens their ability to pay rates high enough to incentivise voluntary cotton picking. This constraint, in combination with ongoing state control of the harvest, contributes to the remaining risks of forced labor of pickers, as shown by findings of independent civil society monitoring of the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021 harvests.
The Uzbek government has made commitments to reform the agricultural sector and has adopted some laws and decrees that on paper provide farmers with more freedom. However, a lack of implementation and enforcement, ongoing restrictions on freedoms of expression and association in Uzbekistan, and the continuation of centralized control over fulfillment of strict production quotas have created an environment in which the state continues to exercise outsized power over farmers.
“Just as it has successfully implemented reforms to end mass mobilization of state employees in the annual cotton harvest, Uzbekistan must now show political will to create decent work conditions for farmers,” said Bennett Freeman, Cotton Campaign co-founder and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. “This is a necessary step to protect the progress made so far. It will also help the government and industry to demonstrate Uzbekistan’s readiness to participate in the supply chains of global brands.”
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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. The Cotton Campaign is hosted and coordinated by Global Labor Justice.
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Background information
Uzbekistan has developed a vertically integrated textile industry, in which private cotton companies (known as “clusters”) control multiple aspects of the textile value chain, from cotton growing, harvesting, and ginning, to manufacturing of finished goods.
About 10% of agricultural land is leased directly from the state to clusters for “direct farming”. The remaining 90% of land is leased to farmers for “contract farming” with the clusters.
Uzbekistan formally abolished the forced state procurement system of cotton and wheat, and with it, state-imposed production quotas, through presidential decree in March 2020. However, the report launched today shows that farmers who lease land allocated for cotton and wheat are effectively still bound by a quota system regulating the amount of cotton and wheat they should produce in a given harvest.
The report also shows that while formally farmers fulfill sales contracts with a cotton cluster, it is the local authorities in their district who, with the assistance of law enforcement bodies, set and pressure farmers to fulfill and deliver their production quotas to the cluster.
The cotton and wheat prices are set by Uzbekistan’s Commodity Exchange, a trading platform for goods and products. The Uzbek government has intervened in price setting, favoring the interests of clusters over those of farmers, and farmers have no effective bargaining power to negotiate these prices with clusters.
Farmers have sought to engage in dialogue with the government and negotiate policies impacting the cotton sector.
Uzbek Forum for Human Rights’ report “There Is A Lot Of Cotton, But No One To Pick It” (2025) describes that in a collective action in November 2024, a group of farmers sent an open appeal to the President of Uzbekistan. They asked for consultations to address a wide range of issues including forced crop placement, a lack of accountability for interference by authorities and law enforcement in contractual relationships between farmers and cotton clusters, and constraints on farmers’ freedom of association rights to form cooperatives. At the time of the report publication, the government had not responded to the farmers’ appeal.
Uzbek Forum for Human Rights’ report “A Turning Point In Uzbekistan’s Cotton Harvest” (2022) describes that in 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture took into account demands made by a group of farmers in setting the terms of contracts between farmers and clusters for the 2022 harvest. Farmers interviewed for the 2022 report told Uzbek Forum that some clusters were refusing to implement the terms of those contracts.
Silk cultivation falls outside the scope of the Human Rights Watch – Uzbek Forum for Human Rights report launched today. However, the report notes that farmers of cotton and wheat in Uzbekistan are also forced by the state to produce silk cocoons for the benefit of Uzbekistan’s now privatized silk industry. Local authorities use coercive methods, including threats to terminate farmers’ land leases or outright beatings, to ensure fulfillment of state-imposed quotas for silkworm cocoon production. Silk cocoons from Uzbekistan are on the US Department of Labor’s list of goods produced with forced labor.
The Cotton Campaign coalition has long advocated with the Uzbek government to increase farmers’ autonomy in law and in practice. In 2019, the Cotton Campaign submitted to the Uzbek government a comprehensive Roadmap of Reforms, outlining key actions to eliminate coercion in the agricultural sector andcreate an enabling environment for farmers and workers.
