'White Gold' - Cotton under scrutiny in Uzbekistan?

London 14th October 2009

Today, the Government of Uzbekistan opens its annual International Cotton Fair in Tashkent. Attending the fair will be major cotton traders from across the globe, and the Government hopes the event will help it to expand and diversify its cotton exports.

High on the agenda is the current state and prospects of production and marketing of cotton in Uzbekistan, and the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) believes this is the golden opportunity for the stakeholders to address the early reports from this year's Uzbek cotton harvest indicating that children are still working in the fields picking 'white gold'.

Cotton stakeholders sit comfortably while children slave on

Whilst the world's leading cotton stakeholders sit in the comfort of Tashkent, early reports from investigators indicate that thousands of Uzbek children will be working in poor conditions, hand-picking cotton, sent to the fields by public employees and their own teachers. The reason? Soviet-style cotton production quotas that result in children being compelled to labour in the harvest.

Children as young as 12 years old have already been seen working in fields during this year's harvest that began around the third week of September. In a stark contrast to children at school across the UK looking forward to half term, children in Uzbekistan will be lining the pockets of Uzbekistan's elite, rather than broadening their horizons. The Uzbek Government itself has a monopoly on cotton trade and lucrative exports. According to those that stand to gain from this child labour, missing classes isn't a problem for these children - "[they] do not need knowledge since they will not study in university anyway".

Last year, in response to widespread condemnation of its practices, the Uzbek Government signed two ILO Conventions to combat child labour. However, EJF investigations (revealed in 'Still in the Fields') found that child labour continued to be prevalent in the 2008 harvest, and evidently this is still the case in 2009. Whilst the Government may now be beginning to acknowledge that child labour is an issue, it continues to deny the evidence that it is state-sponsored, blaming instead families for taking their children to the fields. This is an entirely false portrayal of the reality - Uzbekistan is unique for its use of state-sponsored forced child labour.

Juliette Williams, EJF Director says, "Business as usual is clearly not good for children in Uzbekistan. Cotton traders should be working alongside the growing international coalition - including major companies - which are saying 'no' to Uzbek cotton until there are no more children in the fields. Together we can make a difference and secure a better future for tens of thousands of children who today are undergoing hard physical labour for little or no pay, because their government tells them to."

EJF believes that this year's annual International Cotton Fair in Tashkent provides an invaluable opportunity for an open and honest discussion of the conditions in which Uzbek cotton is produced. EJF urges those attending the Cotton Fair to demand that the Uzbek Government clean up cotton, so that the cotton they export does not equate to robbing the futures of children.

Uzbekistan is the world's fifth largest producer of cotton and the third largest exporter, heralding itself as one of the leading participants on the world cotton market. It is the second largest exporter of cotton to Germany, at around 10,000 tonnes. However, its cotton production is plagued by consistent reports of environmental and human rights abuses. In response to investigations by EJF and others, many leading international retailers have now banned Uzbek cotton in their supply chains. C&A, Marks and Spencer, ASDA-Walmart and Tesco are amongst the names saying 'no' to Uzbek cotton.

Read EJF's reports 'White Gold' and 'Still in the Fields' here

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