Turkmenistan: Systematic Forced Labor in the 2021 Cotton Harvest

European governments and the United States should take urgent measures to block cotton products made with forced labor in Turkmenistan from their markets and hold to account companies that profit from forced labor in Turkmenistan, the Cotton Campaign said. The Cotton Campaign, a global coalition against forced labor in cotton production in Central Asia, today released a new report exposing state-imposed forced labor, including child labor, during the 2021 cotton harvest in Turkmenistan, researched and written by two leading Turkmen human rights groups. The report also reveals trade flows through which forced labor Turkmen cotton enters global markets, including the U.S., despite an existing ban on cotton imports from Turkmenistan.

Government apologized to well-known journalists Seitkazy and Aset Matayev

Astana. July 19. KazTAG - The government has apologized to well-known Kazakhstani journalists Seitkazy and Aset Matayev, who had been illegally convicted.

ILLEGAL LAND CONFISCATIONS IN UZBEKISTAN: FARMERS IN NAMANGAN FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS AND LIVELIHOODS

The modernization of agriculture in Uzbekistan, for which Uzbekistan has received millions of dollars in investment by multilateral development banks, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank, has been accompanied by massive confiscations of farmland across the country.

Statement by Members of The European Parliament, Human Rights Defenders and Independent Journalists

“July 16 marks the first anniversary of the arrest of Dr Hursanay Ismatullaeva from Turkmenistan. She is serving a nine-year prison term for criminal charges that were clearly in retaliation for her labour dispute becoming a topic for discussion at a European Parliament event.

INDORAMA AGRO PROJECT, UZBEKISTAN: UNMITIGATED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS PERSIST

In 2020, Indorama Agro disclosed the project’s final Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, Environmental and Social Management Plan and Livelihood Restoration Plan. These documents are intended to provide an overall picture of risks to the Bank and potentially affected communities and to serve as the basis for mitigating these risks accordingly. Bankwatch made a quality analysis of this documentation. The findings confirmed the lack of integrated impact assessment and focused risk mitigation, a participative and sustainability-led approach, and accountability. The analysis also flags non-compliance with the EBRD performance standards on impact assessment, workers’ health, biodiversity impact, land acquisition, stakeholder engagement and labour rights. The project is exclusively assessed in compliance with Uzbek regulations rather than the best available international practices (i.e. those of the WHO and ILO) and performance standards, which contradicts the EBRD’s requirements. Finally, the project documentation does not contain a comprehensive human rights risk assessment, including the risks from land acquisition and public participation, or from publicly raising concerns in an authoritarian setting.

Significant risks” remain in Uzbek cotton sector

In this guest column written exclusively for Apparel Insider, Lynn Schweisfurth of the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights argues that while the end of systematic forced labour in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan is an important landmark, significant human rights risks remain. While the Uzbek Government celebrates the end of the boycott of Uzbek cotton following the eradication of systematic, state-imposed forced labour, farmers find themselves at the mercy of a system rigged against them.