Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan, forced labor, worker rights, Solidarity Center

In Uzbekistan, where public employees are forced to work in harvests, the Solidarity Center joins with coalition partners to end forced labor. Credit: Timur Karpov.

  In Uzbekistan, the Solidarity Center supports civil society efforts to combat forced labor in the country’s annual cotton harvest where, as recently as 2015, the Uzbek government forced 1 million doctors, teachers, nurses, students and private-sector workers to harvest cotton. The Solidarity Center works with the Cotton Campaign, a coalition of labor rights and human rights organizations, whose efforts have led to elimination of child labor and a significant reduction in forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest. Through the Cotton Campaign, the Solidarity Center pushes for complete elimination of all forms of forced labor, including recent moves by the government to compel teachers and other public-sector employees to clean highways and perform other public maintenance work. With its partners, the Solidarity Center calls on the Uzbek government to implement and enforce the right of all agricultural workers to form, join, and participate in democratic labor unions of their own choosing and allow independent journalists and human rights defenders to monitor cotton labor without fear of reprisals, coercion or intimidation.

Media Contact

Kate Conradt
Communications Director
(+1) 202-974 -8369

 

Report: Uzbek Teachers Clean Highways, Sweep Streets

Although the government of Uzbekistan has made progress on ending child and adult forced labor in the cotton fields after more than a decade of international pressure, a new report finds that forced labor remains rampant in other arenas of Uzbek life, affecting...

Fewer Workers Forced to Prepare Uzbek Cotton Fields

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Uzbek Union Leader Released from Prison

Uzbek union activist Fakhriddin Tillayev, in prison on a 10-year sentence and subjected to torture for attempting to organize an independent union for day laborers, was released over the weekend. Tillayev’s release was among the results sought by a Cotton Campaign...
Child Labor Returns to Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields

Child Labor Returns to Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields

In recent years, Uzbekistan has increased the number of public-sector workers required to pick cotton, because the country nearly ended child labor in 2014 after pressure from the international community, including the Solidarity Center. Recent reports, however,...

Report Links World Bank to Uzbekistan Forced Labor

Report Links World Bank to Uzbekistan Forced Labor

The World Bank is funding half a billion dollars in agricultural projects linked to forced and child labor in Uzbekistan, said Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights (UGF) in a report released today. Even though the Uzbek government...

Uzbek Human Rights Activist Elena Urlaeva Released

Uzbek Human Rights Activist Elena Urlaeva Released

Uzbek human rights defender Elena Urlaeva was released from a psychiatric hospital in Tashkent yesterday where she was imprisoned for 23 days with neither her consent nor a court order to forcibly treat her, according to the Cotton Campaign. Urlaeva’s release follows...

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