Despite Uzbek Government Promises, Human Rights Activists Discover School Children at Cotton Fields in Kashkadarya Region

The Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan (HRAU) announced that 11 and 12 year old children are picking cotton instead of going to school in the Yakkabag district of the Kashkadarya region.

Uznews.net reports that HRAU surveyed the region and found school children from the fourth and fifth grades from school Number 70 on the cotton fields. The teachers said that children have been picking cotton from 20 September, and even work on Sundays, and said that school children from other schools are working on remote fields.  Read more >>>

SEC Sued Over ‘Conflict Minerals’ Rule by Business Groups

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers asked a federal court to modify or scrap U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules governing so-called conflict minerals.

The SEC adopted a regulation in August that requires companies using gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum in their products to make “reasonable” efforts to determine if those materials came from the Democratic Republic of Congo or an adjoining country. Business groups have complained the measure is burdensome, costly to administer and ineffective.

Read more >>>

Tashkent Holds Cotton Fair in Secrecy

Tashkent’s eighth cotton fair has been held behind an unprecedented veil of secrecy with both its venue and nearby facilities closed for outsiders.  Read more >>>

Cotton Campaign Calls on President Obama and Mr. Romney to Speak Out Against Slavery in Uzbekistan

President Obama and Mr. Romney, during the 2012 US Presidential election campaign the world is listening, and the children, women and men exploited in modern-forms of slavery await your leadership. On this Anti-Slavery Day, the Cotton Campaign calls on you to speak out against the modern day slavery used to produce the clothes we wear.  Read more >>>

Unwilling Cotton Harvesters in Uzbekistan

“They used to bring in children of ten and over to work in the fields, but now they are between 15 and 18, mostly college and high school students,” the Alliance’s head Yelena Urlaeva said. “The authorities have raised the age, but the pattern of forced labour still applies.”  Read more >>>