Uzbekistan: Is Cotton Boycott Working?
A boycott of Uzbek cotton by leading Western clothing retailers may be nipping at Tashkent’s pockets, though Asian buyers seem happy to pick up the slack.The Wall Street Journal reports that at...
View ArticleUzbekistan: Hey, Kids, It’s Cotton-Planting Time
Authorities in Uzbekistan don't like to discuss how they push schoolchildren, college students and teachers to toil in the country’s feudal cotton industry. But now that spring planting is underway,...
View ArticleUzbekistan: We Don’t Use Child Labor and No You Can’t Have a Look
It’s September and that means it’s cotton-harvesting time in Uzbekistan. As the kids return to school (often via the cotton fields), Tashkent has issued its annual denial that they are forced to pick...
View ArticleUzbekistan: Did Police Kill Teen for Failing to Pick Cotton?
It’s cotton-picking time in Uzbekistan. Each fall, hundreds of thousands of students (from grade school to university) are press-ganged into leaving the classroom and heading to the cotton fields. The...
View ArticleUzbekistan: Doctors and Nurses Forced into Cotton Fields
Uzbekistan has long faced international scorn for forcing children to pick its cotton. Because Tashkent will not allow international observers to see how its promises of ending the practice are working...
View ArticleYou Probably Sleep in Uzbek Cotton: Sweet Dreams
“A story, Dad, please. A scary one.”Had she known that true stories are sometimes more terrifying than fiction, the little girl may not have pleaded for a bedtime tale. But in this short film, father...
View ArticleCentral Asia: Remembering Lost Childhoods
The United Nations’ International Labor Organization has designated June 12 as World Day Against Child Labor. Unfortunately, child labor remains a serious problem in Central Asia, especially in the...
View ArticleUzbekistan Ups Cotton Sales to Asia, Bypassing Boycott
Human rights groups have long urged consumers and apparel manufacturers to boycott cotton from Uzbekistan, the world’s second largest cotton exporter, because it is picked using forced and child labor....
View ArticleUzbekistan: US Slams Tashkent over Continuing Child Labor
Uzbekistan has made “no advancement” in eliminating the worst forms of child labor, the US Department of Labor has found, despite Tashkent’s efforts to remove younger children from the cotton fields....
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