European Council keen to expand trade in textiles with Uzbekistan

The Council of the European Union has announced that it has agreed changes to the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Uzbekistan to extend the provisions of the PCA to the trade in textiles. This is of concern to the campaign as the proposed changes contradicts a strong and clear message to Uzbekistan that the priority must be to end the systematic use of forced child labour during the annual cotton harvest. However these changes have to be approved by the European Parliament and so this is an opportunity to call on the Parliament to block this process and at the very least, ensure that it is conditional on Uzbekistan ending this practice.

The Association for Human Rights in Central Asia has begun a petition calling for this decision to be reconsidered and for human rights concerns to be taken into account. The petition can be read and signed here.