The use of forced child labor in the harvesting of cotton in Uzbekistan began in the Stalin era when the country was part of the Soviet Union. Since then students from schools and universities in Uzbekistan have been conscripted by local authorities for agricultural work. Uzbekistan's independence ushered in little change: The coercive use of labor of children as young as 10 years of age continues today.
Despite the end of collective farming and the renewal of private farms, 1.5 to 2 million schoolchildren are sent by central and local governments for 2–3 months every autumn to the fields to pick cotton under hazardous conditions, which result in severe injuries to children and deprive them of their right to education.
At this Open Society forum, speakers will debate the responsibilities of development and aid agencies engaging with Uzbekistan and providing assistance to the country, and question whether these agencies do enough to address the issue of forced child labor.
Umida Niyazova, chair of the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights, lead surveyed the use of child labor in the cotton fields in Uzbekistan in autumn 2010. She will present her finding of massive children's rights violations. Daniel Stevens, author of the new report What Has Changed? Progress in Eliminating the Use of Forced Child Labour in the Cotton Harvests of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, will provide a comparative perspective across the Central Asian region, highlighting commonalities and peculiarities.
Speakers
- Daniel Stevens, Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and Caucacus, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
- Umida Niyazova, Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights
- Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch (moderator)