A German non-governmental organization hoping to try to get companies to abide by international standards and cease participating in the use of forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest has received a disappointing response from European cotton traders to an international body. Even so, the complaints process has shed light on the issue and enlisted a pledge from the traders to cease buying cotton from Uzbekistan -- if it can be proved child labor exists.
Last October, the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) submitted a complaint alleging that European Union cotton traders profited from forced child labor in Uzbekistan to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), a 33-member Paris-based economic body that has devised standards of corporate conduct.
The United Kingdom's National Contact Point for the OECD arranged mediation with ICT Cotton Limited (ICTC) and Cargill Cotton Limited in Uzbekistan. While ICT acknowledged ECCHR's view that forced child labor is used in Uzbekistan's cotton industry, and conceded that businesses had a responsibility to prevent such practices, ICT itself "does not believe that such systematic abuses are adopted in Uzbekistan and for this reason does not accept the request to cease trading." Rather than claim that it was difficult to trace Uzbek cotton in their sources, as some brands have, ICT pointed to the lack of evidence for the practice. Cargill also noted that it does not condone the use of forced labor, and recognized that there were "serious allegations about the systematic use of forced child labor" in Uzbekistan, and called for "such allegations to be investigated by an appropriate independent international organisation."
Such an organization would naturally be the International Labor Organization (ILO), which indeed expressed grave concerns about reports of forced child labor at its annual meeting in June, citing a report by its own Committee of Experts. The report drew mainly on information from local and international non-governmental groups, but also included information from UNICEF. UNICEF implemented a mitigation program with the government of Uzbekistan last year to prevent younger children from being sent to the cotton fields and to keep children in school longer, thus tacitly acknowledging that forced child labor indeed existed and was an ongoing problem in Uzbekistan.
The companies pledged to revisit the issue in a year's time, and the ECCHR agreed to drop the demand to stop trading, given that ICT said it would "immediately suspend business relations with any supplier who will, beyond reasonable doubt, be found to have used such practices." Numerous reports have been gathered about the coercion of school-age children to work in the cotton industry, but the Government of Uzbekistan denies the practice and claims there is no motivation for using child laborers. Yet Tashkent has also denied the ILO entry to Uzbekistan to perform inspections of the cotton fields during the harvest, so there is currently a stalemate: companies insist on validation of the claims by a body like the ILO, yet the ILO is not permitted to monitor the situation.
Responses are still awaited from the National Contact Points for the OECD in Switzerland and Germany, where complaints were also filed.
Anti-Slavery International, another organization that has campaigned against forced child labor in Uzbekistan, said it had written to José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, on April 11, 2011, asking the EU to remove trade preferences because of the ongoing use of forced labor in Uzbekistan. The activists said Uzbekistan is the third-largest exporter of cotton in the world, now at $2.00/lb on global markets, yet exploits hundreds of thousands of school-children to pick cotton each autumn, keeping them from school and paying them a pittance. Anti-Slavery International was one of the organizations that testified at a hearing convened by the European Parliament recently.
After three months, a response to the letter was received from Andra Koke, head of Trade and Development at the European Commission Directorate General of Trade, on behalf of Barroso. The letter said the European Commission "attaches great importance to supporting agricultural reforms in Uzbekistan, in particular the restructuring of the Uzbek cotton sector and the introduction of mechanical cotton harvest, in order to support the implementation of labour standards.” Yet the European Commission said it would only take action regarding the trade preferences if the ILO was able to "clearly prove" that there were "serious and systematic" violations of ILO conventions on forced and child labor -- a proposition that remained theoretical as the ILO has not been invited to come to Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, Gulnara Karimova, the controversial daughter of Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov, will be showing her Guli fashion label on the runway during Fashion Week in New York City from September 8-15, sponsored by Mercedes Benz, just as she did last year. Labor and human rights groups are expected to address protests to Karimova, who has never acknowledged the use of child labor in her country.
Even as officials continue to deny the existence of forced child labor (or acknowledge it in some districts, and explain they are eliminating it completely), reports continue to be published from human rights monitors and independent journalists about forced labor. This month, Uzbek Service of the BBC cited teachers who requested anonymity who described forcible recruiting to work in the cotton fields this summer during their vacation. As cotton prices have doubled since last year, even more land has been put under cotton cultivation than before, creating both a demand for more workers and a motivation to use forced labor. State employees including teachers, daycare workers, doctors and factor workers have been bussed to the fields and put to work weeding and pruning the cotton plants. They are not paid for their work, which is considered part of their obligation to the state, and they must cover the cost of their own transportation and meals. Several of the state employees told the BBC that they were afraid to complain because they were threatened with losing their regular jobs. Teachers have also been put to work on construction sites. Officials deny that such forced labor is taking place, but one Tashkent city official acknowledged that such practices could go on without the knowledge of higher officials at the national level.
The atmosphere of coercion also means that administrators lie to officials about the number of people employed in their offices so as to be able to send fewer workers to the field, and farmers also pad accounts as they are sometimes forced to sell fuel and fertilizer to survive.
Uzbekistan marked the anniversary of the .uz domain this month, yet ironically it was a time when many foreign Internet sites were blocked. First, unknown hackers attacked government websites on July 28, defacing them with a picture of masked demonstrators carrying banners that appeared to be the Saudi flag with an Arabic inscription, but with the black color used by Al Qaeda. The sites were quickly restored by the next day. Then reports were received that customers of Beeline, the Russian cell phone company, were experiencing lack of access to Russian news sites like gazeta.ru – although the company denied that it was blocking any sites and said that it would not filter content as it was only a service provider.
Then reports emerged that many Russian and foreign news sites were unavailable. Uznews.net confirmed reports that at least 29 sites were blocked -- First Channel, Rossiya, NTV, RBK TV and others. Daily newspapers online such as Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Parlamentskaya Gazeta, Kommersant, Pravda and others were also inaccessible. Lenta.ru seemed to be the only site left untouched. Vladimir Berezovsky, the editor-in-chief of vesti.uz, a journalist sentenced for libel in April, said that he believed that Uzbektelekom had shut down access to sites hosted abroad. Berezovsky was subsequently amnestied and has revived his news site. Some observers speculated that the Uzbek government feared that the news of the London riots as well as ongoing demonstrations in the Middle East would incite people in Uzbekistan to protest.
Catherine A. Fitzpatrick compiles the Uzbekistan weekly roundup for EurasiaNet. She is also editor of EurasiaNet's Choihona blog. To subscribe to Uzbekistan News Briefs, a weekly digest of international and regional press, write [email protected]
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