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

US Children's Clothing Company Gymboree Bans Use of Uzbek Cotton

US children's clothing manufacturer Gymboree is the latest company to take a stand against child labour by refusing to buy cotton from Uzbekistan. Their web announcement of the policy change comes after over 3,000 Change.org members sent in letters asking for the company to stop buying Uzbek cotton.
 
Over 70 of the world's largest apparel brands and retailers have developed policies on the use of Uzbek cotton in their products or refusing to buy products made with Uzbek cotton. And now after nearly a year of advocacy from Change.org members, Gymboree will join their ranks. According to the statement on their website, "Gymboree prohibits the use of cotton sourced from Uzbekistan and textiles produced using Uzbekistan cotton because of Uzbekistan's history of forced child labor." It's a move that now puts Gymboree a step ahead of other children's brands, which ironically still use cotton harvested by kids.

Anti-Slavery will be following closely to ensure that Gymboree puts in place adequate tracking and tracing mechanisms to ensure that this commitment is enforced in practice.

This is an edited article originally published on change.org

Schoolchildren sent to cotton fields in Jizak Region

Uznews.net reported last week that schoolchildren in the Jizak region of Uzbekistan have been ordered to leave their classrooms and help farmers cultivate cotton by weeding fields.

 

A local teacher said the campaign was preventing school leavers from revising before their graduation exams. Those sent to the fields are 15 and 16 year-olds.

Sources claim that Jizak Regional education department was involved in sending high school pupils to the cotton fields. The campaign is no surprise to many activists trying to end the Uzbek government’s reliance on forced child labour to maximise its yields from cotton growing and exports each year. 

 

Uzbekistan exports about 1 million tonnes of cotton fibre every year. The Jizak Region is an important cotton producing area for the country.

Uzbekistan sets up child labour monitoring group

The Uzbek government has announced the formation of a new working group to ensure no forced child labour is used in Uzbekistan. Yet Tashkent has still not issued an invitation to the ILO to visit Uzbekistan during the cotton harvest this autumn.

The working group includes government ministries and government-organised social organisations but there are no representatives from independent NGOs or civil society. The officially-sanctioned group says it will monitor conditions of labour for children under 18 and prevent the worst forms of child labour, as required under ILO conventions.

Based on reports of the systematic use of forced child labour, the ILO has sought an invitation to visit Uzbekistan and monitor conditions during the cotton harvest. The announcement of the working group seems to give the semblance of cooperation with the ILO while distracting from the fact that Tashkent has continued to refuse to issue the invitation.

Umida Niyazova, head of the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, told cottoncampaign.org that the measure seemed to be largely for show:

This is a peculiar response by the government to its own decision to refuse an ILO mission. Forced child labour in Uzbekistan exists precisely because the government supports this system. Therefore, it would be naive and absurd to suppose that the government is capable of monitoring itself, knowing that it is the state itself that is responsible for the existence of this problem.

It remains to be seen how much the working group will really function, and whether it will attempt to displace authentic monitoring activity by Uzbekistan’s beleaguered human rights groups.

This is an abridged version of an article posted on cottoncampaign.org 

Uzbekistan expands its client base

The recent floods in Pakistan, which destroyed approximately 15% of its cotton crop, have put its textile industry in a vulnerable position.  Never one to miss an opportunity, Uzbekistan officials swiftly secured a deal whereby struggling Pakistan has agreed to take a delivery of one million bales of cotton.

Uzbekistan’s standard procedure in cotton deals is to demand an 80% advance payment in cash, however interestingly it is reported that Uzbekistan has agreed to waive this demand in order to secure the deal.  Perhaps a sign of desperation? Customers in China and Bangladesh are facing difficult questions from international retailers over the origin of their cotton and conditions in which it was harvested, so is this a case of Uzbekistan looking to secure new business partners that don’t ask so many questions?

Complaint against cotton traders in Europe

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) together with the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, Sherpa and solicitor Guido Ehrler filed seven complaints against European cotton traders buying cotton from Uzbekistan in Germany, Switzerland, France and the UK. The Swiss National Contact Point  (NCP) for the OECD has now responded to the complaint, in line with the UK NCP.

ECCHR and its partners allege that the named traders support the systematic use of forced child labour and forced labour in the Uzbek cotton harvest. 

In February, the UK NCP accepted the two complaints filed in the UK for further examination. The Swiss NCP has followed suit and will now open the mediation process.

 

ECCHR welcomes this decision and hopes that it will  encourage similar responses from the German and French NCPs in due course.

EU refuses to send a delegation to Uzbekistan

The EU has decided not to send a delegation to Uzbekistan in protest at the country's recent decision to shut down the office of New York-based Human Rights Watch in Tashkent.

Michael Mann, spokesman for the EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, said that the EU had decided not to send EU delegation to Uzbekistan and that there was no-one there now.

The decision to set up an EU delegation in Tashkent was taken during Uzbek President Islam Karimovs visit to Brussels this January and his meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Barroso and Karimov discussed the release of human rights activists Agzam Farmonov, Norboy Holjigitov and Isroiljon Holdorov and accreditation for representatives of Human Rights Watch. Karimov also agreed to allow representatives of the International Labour Organisation into the country to monitor the use of child labour in the cotton industry.

Two months on from the meeting, the human rights activists are still in prison, while Human Rights Watch has been forced to close down its office in Tashkent.

Michael Mann said that dialogue regarding human rights would continue with Uzbekistan and that the EU would be pressuring Tashkent to change its decision on Human Rights Watch.

Reported by The Times of Central Asia