Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is pehaps the only country in the world where the central government actively contributes to widespread child labor. Each fall, school children are forced to leave school and harvest cotton for little pay under harsh conditions.
UNICEF estimated that 22.6 percent of children ages 5 to 14 years in Uzbekistan were working in 2000.
The CLC’s and Cotton Campaign’s Protest of the Use of Forced Child Labor and Adult Labor in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields
When you are a child labor activist, you spend a surprising amount of time sitting at your desk writing emails and blogs or in meetings with federal officials and others concerned about child labor. Opportunities for street activism are not common, but earlier this month, the members of the Child Labor Coalition and the [...]
Please Join Our Protest Against Forced Child Labor in Uzbekistan, Monday, March 11
The Child Labor Coalition and the Cotton Campaign are seeking your help: Stop Forced Labor, Forced Child Labor and Human Rights Abuses in Uzbekistan During the Uzbekistan Foreign Minister’s visit to Washington, DC March 11, 2013, 12 – 1 PM EST, at the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Washington, Massachusetts Ave. near Dupont Circle (1746 Massachusetts [...]
Number of Companies Pledging to Avoid Uzbek Cotton Zooms Past 100
The Cotton Campaign recently passed an important milestone in the fight to protect children in Uzbekistan from forced child labor: more than 100 companies have signed a pledge to try to avoid purchasing Uzbek cotton. Consumers will recognize a lot of the names on the list—Levis Strauss, Fruit of the Loom, GAP, Ann Taylor, Wal-Mart—comprising [...]
Uzbekistan: U.S. Report Fails Child Labor Victims–Unwillingness to Impose Meaningful Consequences Allows Abuses to Continue
[The following is a press release from the Cotton Campaign regarding a letter to the State Department in which the CLC joined more than 40 groups to express disappointment about the failure to cite Uzbekistan for forced labor and child labor abuses in its cotton harvest.] (Washington, DC, June 21, 2012) – The United States [...]
Uzbekistan: EU Parliamentarians Reject Textile Deal With Uzbekistan
October 5, 2011 – 3:06pm, by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick [Source: EurasiaNet.org] European Union parliamentarians have rejected a trade deal that would have eased Uzbekistan’s export of textiles to Europe, citing the use of forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe reported. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament voted unanimously against the [...]
