Uzbekistan Forced Labour Leaves Child Comatose

Thirteen year-old Bakhodir Pardaev is the latest victim of the state-sanctioned forced child labour that occurs in Uzbekistan during the cotton harvest. The country has repeatedly reneged on promises to outlaw child labour and continues to ignore international condemnation from individuals, nations, the EU and major fashion brands.

Bakhodir, just one of an estimated 1-2.5 million children forced to work each year, has suffered severe injuries that have left him in a coma after being hit by a car. The child labourers are often forced to walk a dangerous route to and from the fields alongside highways. 

IPS News reports that Nadejda Atayeva, from the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia, said: ‘This is just one in a series of similar traffic accidents associated with the cotton harvest campaign and coercive mobilisation of school children every year.’

99% of Uzbek cotton ends up in the EU, which continues to provide the nation with preferential trade tariffs, and it is a tragedy that consumers can find themselves unwittingly supporting dangerous and abusive child labour.

Uzbekistan’s Cotton Crimes must stop. We must urge the EU to take decisive action and convince retailers to tighten up their supply chains to squeeze Uzbek cotton out. Click here to watch our “End Cotton Crimes” video. Click here to see retailer’s responses regarding their usage of Uzbek cotton. Click here to sign our petition to the EU.

The real price of our clothes

In order to increase awareness of the child labour practices in the Uzbekistan cotton industry, lobby the EU with a stronger petition, and garner support for fashion free of child labour, we have re-launched our Cotton Crimes Campaign with a short film. Please discuss and share this; let us work communally to end Uzbekistan’s forced child labour practices.

Moving forward with our campaign is important. The deadline for our petition is imminent and the 2011 cotton harvest has begun. In Uzbekistan, the third largest exporter of cotton in the world, it is not the cotton picking machines that are firing up; unlike other major cotton exporting countries, Uzbekistan does not use machines. Instead, it is the country’s schools that are shutting down as Government officials force children as young as nine out of their classrooms and into the fields to pick cotton.

In the wake of our successful lobbying of the EU to block a textile deal with Uzbekistan, due to objections over the country’s continued use of government sanctioned forced child labour, it is important that we keep our feet on the ground. Though we are hugely proud of this progress, we continue to campaign for the EU to enact consistent policy with Uzbekistan in order to pressure the country to end their practice of forced labour.

The European Union must still remove the preferential trade tariffs given to Uzbekistan for cotton imported into the EU. Sign our petition to Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, calling for exactly that.

EU Lawmakers Block Textile Deal With Uzbekistan Over Child Labor Concerns

The EU today rejected a trade deal that would have made it easier for Uzbekistan to export textiles to Europe, due to its objections to the country’s continued use of forced child labour to pick cotton. The news came after intensive lobbying from Anti-Slavery international and our partners for the deal to be blocked.  

The European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee unanimously voted against the inclusion of textiles in the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, a document that has formed the basis of trade in most other goods between the EU and Uzbekistan since it came into force in 1999. The deal would have lowered the tariffs on EU imports of Uzbek Cotton, which currently represent one-quarter of the country’s exports.

Despite this progress, the EU still allows Uzbekistan to benefit from reducing trading tariffs for all its imports into the EU due to it low development ranking. Although today’s result is major step forward in securing tougher action from the EU with regards to the use of forced child labour, we need to ensure action is taken across the EU and that their policy in relation to trade with Uzbekistan is consistent, in order to put pressure on the country to end this practice.

Anti- Slavery International’s Cotton Crimes campaign continues to call for the EU to remove all trade preferences for Uzbekistan. Please support us here: www.antislavery.org/cottoncrimes.

News source: http://www.rferl.org/content/eu_lawmakers_block_textile_deal_with_uzbekistan_over_child_labor_concerns/24349083.html

Fashion Takes A Stand

Following mounting pressure from human rights campaigners and protestors, IMG, the organisers of New York Fashion Week, cancelled Gulnara Karimova’s fashion show (http://nyp.st/qnfDQo).

Despite this, Karimova refused to be discouraged and instead put on a private show at Cipriani, a prestigious restaurant in Manhattan. This did not help her avoid further demonstrations however, as the International Labour Rights Forum (ILRF) organised a rally and protestors gathered outside the lavish restaurant chanting and holding placards that read "I always dream about going to the park with my mum and dad, but I've got to pick cotton for Gulnara Karimova's fashion week" (http://bit.ly/nyvAZw).

On both sides of the Atlantic there has been considerable media coverage on the recent events and pressure is now growing on the Uzbek government to end the use of child labour in its cotton industry. H&M, Adidas, Puma, Burberry & Levi are just of some of the 60+ global clothing brands that have pledged to 'not knowingly source' cotton from Uzbekistan (http://tgr.ph/n2Zbue).

Adidas said that "By signing this pledge we are showing our unwavering commitment to the cause," and H&M have said that they "will maintain this pledge until the elimination of this practice is independently verified by the International Labour Organization (ILO)."

 

Ultimately we hope that Gulnara's attempt to launch her own fashion line will have inadvertently thrown Uzbekistan's cotton crimes into the spotlight. 

To see photos of the rally http://bit.ly/qFWqgt or bit.ly/qF3hM7.

Slavery in Uzbekistan is front page of the New York Times

Read the full article from the NY post below:


Daughter of murderous dictator to unveil spring line at Fashion Week

The pampered daughter of the murderous dictator of Uzbekistan -- a reviled tyrant who once boiled a political foe alive and has killed, tortured and enslaved thousands of his countrymen -- will unveil her new line of spring creations during Fashion Week at Lincoln Center.

And human-rights advocates say Gulnara “GooGoosha” Karimova -- a high ranking official in her father’s government once bluntly described by US diplomats as “the single most-hated person in the country” -- should not be given the privilege of a prestigious Sept. 15 runway show given her complicity in her father Islam Karimov’s reign of terror.

“There’s nothing fashionable about lending a high-profile platform to the senior official of one of the world’s most repressive governments,” fumed Steve Swerdlow, Uzbekistan researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The jet-setting Karimova, 39, has tried mightily to project a glamorous image: making a video with Julio Iglesias and booking Sting for a fashion festival in Tashkent in 2009 -- a gig for which he was roundly criticized.

She also launched her colorful “Guli” fashion line, which is heavily influenced by Middle Eastern and Asian cultures.

It features embroidered trims and traditional flowing Uzbek blends of cotton and silk.

But US diplomats in Uzbekistan said, “Most Uzbeks see Karimova as a greedy, power-hungry individual who uses her father to crush business people or anyone else who stands in her way,” according to documents released by WikiLeaks.

The firestorm is an embarrassment for IMG, which produces Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

“We’re horrified by the human-rights abuses in Uzbekistan, and hope that the attention Human Rights Watch generates is able to effect change in the country. We also hope to work hand-in-hand with Human Rights Watch during Fashion Week and beyond to challenge those in power in Uzbekistan to take action immediately,” an IMG spokesman said.

Nevertheless, IMG said it had no plans to cancel the runway show.

Representatives for Karimova said the fascista fashionista was out of the country and unavailable for comment.

“Ms. Karimova should not be ... benefitting from the international limelight while the Uzbek government continues to engage in ... torture and forced child labor,” Swerdlow added.

Karimova has also been linked to the Russian mob. And critics charge that she and her family have raked in millions from the regime’s forced labor policies in which schoolchildren are ordered to leave classes to pick cotton.

The International Labor Rights Forum is planning a mock fashion show outside Lincoln Center to protest Karimova’s Sept. 15 show.

“Models will include local college students who will be wearing T-shirts and costumes illustrating the link between the fashion industry and forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry,” said the forum’s Tim Newman.

And retailers such as Macy’s, The Gap, Walmart and H&M have already stopped buying Uzbek cotton.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/fashion_weak_on_torture_8KYhMldKuolwEloVgZtZVO

Uzbekistan: British Embassy Staffer Fined by Court for Contact with Activists

A press secretary for the British Embassy in Uzbekistan has been fined $1,600 for meeting with Uzbek human rights advocates, fergananews.com, an independent Central Asian website reported last week.


Leonid Kudryavtsev was charged under the Uzbek administrative code for "violation of procedure for organizations, conducting meetings, rallies, streets actions or demonstrations," punishable by fines or up to 15 days of arrest.

Kudryavtsev said that he learned of the case against him on June 9 when he was summoned for interrogation. The police used a supposed letter from irate citizens as a pretext for the summons. The accusatory letter goes into detail with sarcasm-laden claims about Elena Urlayeva, a prominent Tashkent-based human rights advocate who is often in the news for monitoring child labor in the cotton industry. She is claimed to be involved in "hooligan activity" and "assemblages disguised as trainings" at the Embassy with Kudryavtsev.

Kudryavtsev told fergananews.com that the Embassy does in fact meet with Tashkent human rights advocates and has held two such meetings in the past year which were strictly educational in nature, fergananews.com reported:

We explain to local human rights defenders the basics about many local laws and international covenants ratified by Uzbekistan. These are activities of the Embassy... so it is surprising that I am on trial.

Why is the Uzbek regime going after a vulnerable member of the British staff who can't claim diplomatic immunity, because he is an Uzbek citizen? The authorities are always trying to block access to the foreign diplomatic community by the local independent human rights groups and this is one way they "send a message."

This article is abridged from the original first published on Eurasianet.org

Will Brussels Give Tashkent a Pass on Wide-Scale Forced Labour?

On Tuesday, Anti-Slavery's Supply Chain Programme Co-ordinator, Joanna Ewart-James, called on the European Parlimanent's International Trade Committee to "grasp this opportunity to influence the Government of Uzbekistan to end this abhorrent and illegal practice" presented by an amendment to the trade agreement between the EU and Uzbekistan, which the Parliament is considering approving.

Catherine Bearder MEP who sits on the International Trade Committee, described the use of state-sponsored forced child labour to pick cotton in Uzbekistan as “penal servitude on a massive scale.”

“To pass [this amendment] would clearly send the wrong message about what the EU stands for, the rights of people that we trade with,” Bearder continued. “By reserving our decision on this agreement we send a clear message that we are watching.”

Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the EU, Bakhtiyar Gulyamov, was invited to the International Trade Committee hearing, but did not attend. The European Parliament is due to vote on the amendment later this year.

More details of the event can be read on Eurasianet.org