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