Forced Child Labour continues in Uzbek cotton poduction

02.10.2008

In response to the international campaign to reform the cotton industry in Uzbekistan and the actions taken by major cotton retailers, the Government of Uzbekistan has most recently launched an expansive PR offensive to try and persuade governments, businesses and civil society groups around the world that they no longer use forced child labour and that they are reforming their industry – these claims are false and misleading.

While the authorities say a ban on child labour; the ratification of ILO Conventions and a National Action Plan have put an end to the abuses, it is demonstrable fact that this does not stand up to any independent scrutiny. EJF notes that full and independent verification of the situation is extremely difficult, given the repressive nature of the Uzbek regime, which routinely harasses, brutalises and arrests journalists and human rights activists, however these media reports that are emerging testify to the continued use of children as young as 13 in the harvest.

EJF will continue to press for international condemnation of the way in which Uzbek cotton is produced, until permanent, positive changes are achieved.

Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

23-Sep-08

The authorities in Uzbekistan have formally outlawed the practice of using children to work the cotton fields, although local observers say it will take time before the ban is universally observed.

On September 12, Prime Minister Shavkat Mirzieyev signed off on plans to bring into force two international child protection documents which Uzbekistan ratified in April this year – the Convention Concerning the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and the Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. The government also approved a National Action Plan for the minimum age convention.

The new rules mean that minors under the age of 15 cannot be engaged as employees, and applies equally to cotton farming, where child labour has been widely used in recent years. It was standard practice for schoolchildren to be deployed for the cotton harvest, which generally begins in mid-September.

The ban follows a boycott of Uzbek cotton announced by four major United States and British clothing import and retail associations, in response to the use of child labour.

NBCentralAsia observers say the ban on child labour is intended to address international concerns and maintain Uzbekistan’s dominant role as the world’s third-largest cotton exporter. Of the 3.5 million tons of raw cotton grown annually, at least 1.5 million tons goes to export. Much of it is picked by hand.

Some local observers say the ban is already taking effect, noting a marked absence of children in some cotton-growing areas in the run-up to the harvest.

“There are law enforcement officers patrolling many of the fields to ensure the instructions are enforced,” said Mamurjon Azimov, a human rights activist from the Jizak region of central Uzbekistan.

The authorities appear to be intent on showing that the cotton harvest can be conducted without using children, and claim to have adequate numbers of cotton-harvesting machines.

Yet many farmers question whether this will be enough, and suspect that they will have to go back to the time-honoured tradition of recruiting schoolchildren and college students.

Farmers say that although they are technically independent, they are still bound to the state by a rigid system which requires them to grow a certain quota of cotton and deliver it to a government monopoly purchasing agency.

“We can’t pick the cotton we’ve grown unless we use children,” said Atanazar Allaberganov, a farmer from the northwestern region of Khorezm, explaining that this year’s crop had been planted in densely-packed rows 60 centimetres apart, whereas a harvesting machine needs a gap of 90 centimetres to pass between the rows.

The farmer said he knew of 300 under-age schoolchildren already working on cotton plantations in his immediate vicinity.

The reason the plants are so close together is the result of an earlier instruction from the authorities to maximise the yield. This year’s national production target has been set at 3.6 million tons.

Experts say child labour in Uzbekistan is unlikely to be eradicated as long as the authorities go on using the current heavy-handed approach to cotton production – imposing the “state order” quota system, enforcing it with tough penalties, and deploying police to ensure the harvest is gathered in.

Another obstacle is the lack of transparency in Uzbekistan, making it hard to measure the extent to which the ban will actually be enforced.

As Nadezhda Ataeva, head of the Paris-based Human Rights in Central Asia Association, pointed out, “The National Action Plan makes no provision for human rights activists and journalists to monitor its implementation, so there is every reason to believe that compulsory [child] labour will recur in the cotton sector.”

Source: Uznews.net

26/09/08

Schoolchildren aged 13 and over have been sent to pick cotton in all districts in Samarkand Region despite government pledges not to use child labour in this cotton harvest.

Children were sent to cotton fields on 22 September.

An official from the Pastdargom District education department said this order had taken him and his colleagues by surprise because only few days before they were ordered to ensure 100% attendances at schools.

“This contradicts the recent resolution issued by the governor of Samarkand Region, Uktam Barnoyev, that children under 15 should not be sent to pick cotton,” a school director said.

Other sources in Samarkand Region said that students of colleges, lyceums and universities had long been picking cotton in the region, although this has not been officially reported.

Source: enews.ferghana.ru

19/09/08

Just recently the Uzbek government vowed to combat the use of child labour on cotton fields. However, latest reports from Uzbekistan appear at odds with government’s intentions.

In September Uzbek government has finally admitted child labour is used on cotton fields and promised to eradicate flagrant practices. However, Ferghana.ru correspondents from Uzbekistan say lots of children could be seen on the fields as harvesting has started.

A farmer in the Gizhduvansky district in Bukhara region, who preferred to stay anonymous, told Ferghana.ru he hired thirty children, including pupils in the first grade. He pays 40 sums, or 0,03 US dollars, for a kilo of gathered cotton. He said that children usually collect up to 80 kilos of cotton a day and earn 2,5-3 US dollars each.

“They go to work absolutely voluntarily,” the farmer notes. “Children skip classes to earn money, and they are happy with what they make because they are coming from very poor families.”

The situation proves much more should be done to end child labour apart from simple declarations to fight it. The problem goes much deeper into critical socio-economic situation and high poverty rate.

Working children are also discriminated in payment. If adult gets 30 cents for one kilo of cotton, children make no more than 3 cents. Two kilos of raw cotton make a kilo of refined cotton that is sold for almost one US dollar on the international market.

Isenkyor Uzbek-language web portal reports that a group of high school students are gathering cotton in Jizak region. Some 1200 students from industrial collage and the same number of medical students were sent to cotton fields in the Dustilk and Mirzachulik districts of the region.

Students, some of whom have not reached 15 years of age, are placed in barracks without facilities.

“There is no drinking water, we take water from aryks [small canals traditionally used in Central Asia for irrigation]. Even dogs do not want to eat what we are fed with,” said one of the students who did not want to introduce himself.

“The daily plan is to gather 80 kilograms of cotton, but I pick up only 35 or 40 kilos at most,” said another student.

Specialists cited by Insekor claim that without child labour harvesting cotton in Jizak region is impossible.

“If cotton is not gathered on time we can lose the whole harvest,” said a specialist on agriculture at the Jizak local administration.

Officials in the Namangan region say none of the students were recruited as cotton collectors, however, Ferghana.ru correspondents in the region deny these statements are truthful. Most of the collage students and university freshmen are now working on the fields, they claim.