Sunday, October 11, 2009

Rally to STOP Forced Child Labor in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields


On Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, Child Labor Coalition, International Labor Rights Forum, Not for Sale Campaign, SEIU, Workers United are hosting a rally at the Embassy of Uzbekistan to protest forced child labor in Uzbekistan.

According to
The Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child or Forced Labor, released in September of 2009, the cotton industry in Uzbekistan continues to use child labor and forced labor. The International Labor Rights Forum states that Uzbekistan is the second largest exporter of cotton around the world. While this industry is profitable for some, "Thousands of children as young as seven work in the cotton fields instead of attending school in order to meet government-imposed cotton production quota. . . Some children are conscripted to work in remote areas where they are forced to stay in dormitories while they pick cotton."

In 2007 the BBC released a story about reporter Simon Ostrovsky who investigated the path cotton takes from "the clothes rack to the factory and back to the fields where the cotton has been harvested." While retailers were disturbed to learn that products that they sell were made with forced labor, the practice continues. The articles recounts the story of a "nine-year-old girl who has to work from eight in the morning until sunset, [who] said: 'They have closed the school - that's why I'm picking cotton.'" According to the article, each year the schools are closed during the cotton harvest.


The US State Department placed Uzbekistan on the
Tier Two Watch List of the latest Trafficking in Persons Report for the second year in a row, up from Tier Three in 2006 and 2007. The report states that Uzbekistan is a source country for women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation in "UAE, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Israel." Men are trafficked to Russia and Kazakhstan for forced labor. People are also trafficked internally in Uzbekistan for forced labor and sexual exploitation, including "Many school-age children, college students, and faculty [who] are forced to pick cotton during the annual harvest."

The TIP report states that Uzbekistan has issued a formal ban on forced child labor and created an action plan to address trafficking. However, the report also states that "Uzbekistan did not make significant efforts to eliminate the use of forced labor of adults and children in the cotton harvest and did not make efforts to investigate, prosecute, or convict government officials complicit in the use of forced labor during the harvest." Moreover, the state-enforced quota system for the cotton harvest has remained in place.


Cotton products that people buy may be tainted with forced labor, including forced child labor, particularly given that Uzbekistan is the second largest exporter of cotton.


What: Rally to STOP Forced Child Labor in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields
When: Wednesday, October 14th, Noon – 1 PM
Where:
Embassy of Uzbekistan
1746 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC
(Near Dupont Circle)

Sponsored by AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, Child Labor Coalition, International Labor Rights Forum, Not for Sale Campaign, SEIU, Workers United.


For more information and to RSVP, visit
http://www.unionvoice.org/laborrights/events/stopuzbekchildlabor/details.tcl

You can also sign a
petition urging the Uzbek Government to stop forced child labor.

Image taken from the Rally to STOP Forced Child Labor in
Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields' flyer.

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