We have been working hard on this campaign over the past year, and we are pleased to announce that we have substantially surpassed our target of a 10,000 signature strong petition to the European Parliament. This petition requests the removal of Uzbekistan’s preferential trade tariffs in light of the ongoing use of state-sponsored child slavery in the country’s cotton industry.
We are currently at 13072 signatures, and we could not have got to this point without valuable support. Change.org helped us reach a wider audience, for which we are grateful. People like Ricky Martin have voiced their support of our campaign and shared our viral video “End Cotton Crimes”. Ethical fashion bloggers and online magazines like ethical consumer have posted our campaign onto their blogs, as well as sharing it via social media. The Ethical Fashion Forum shared our message at their Source Expo earlier this year. Most importantly, though, our supporters – you – have engaged with the campaign, spoken out against the crimes that the Uzbek government continues to commit, and taken the time to sign our petition.
This petition will be hand-delivered to the European Parliament tomorrow (7th December) by Anti-Slavery International and schoolchildren from Bishop Bell School, invited by Catherine Bearder MEP after they wrote to her expression concern over slavery in the fashion industry.
The importance of dealing with this issue has been emphasised today through the national press as they publish stories about Bell Pottinger’s willingness to work with journalists posing as clients from the Uzbek government. The international public relations giant indicated a desire to work with, and transform the image of, one of the most vicious dictatorships in the world. In the face of this, we must convince the international community to speak up for the children of Uzbekistan.
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